The Second Story of the Diamond Dragoon
by Solid Shark
Summary: Sequel to The Story of the Diamond Dragoon. LoDFFX crossover. Six years after Melbu Frahma's defeat, Ian Takahari is called on once again. I suggest you read the first story, otherwise you won't know who several of the characters are.
1. Chapter 1: The New Journey

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, and Kenji Okamura

* * *

It was six years after the destruction of the Moon That Never Sets that my combat career reached world-saving heights once more. During those years, my life certainly hadn't been too peaceful; when one is in charge of the king's "Knights of Shadows", one has a lot of work to do, from stopping assassination attempts, to executing assassinations, subduing insurrections, and all-around wet-work. Not to mention friends and relatives of those I killed in my official job coming after me personally. That had happened a few times over the years, and none of them had so much as scratched me.

And, of course, there was the original mission of my old, now-extinct ninja clan: hunting vampires. I had exterminated what we believed to be the last vampire of Earth other than Dracula himself, but before his death, Count Draco von Schneider had spread the plague to Endiness. The clan that I now led, the Oukoku Fukei, or Kingdom's Guardians, had its work cut out for it. And I, Sensei Ian Takahari, had the worst of it, being one of only four fully-trained ninja on the planet.

* * *

I was going over documents in what passed for my office (even a ninja is never free of paperwork) when one of my gakusei, or students, stepped in and bowed. "There's a visitor for you, Sensei."

I glanced up. "Who is it?"

The poor kid was practically bursting with excitement. "It's King Albert! Wearing his wings!"

_Albert? And he flew? Must be important, if it couldn't wait for my report next week._ I stood. "Okay, sotsu," I said, following the tradition of master calling an apprentice "my son", "you can go. Please inform Sensei Kenji that he will be needed to conduct this morning's exercises."

As I headed for the courtyard of what was once the Shrine of Shirley and was now the only existing dojo of the Oukoku Fukei ninja, I reflected on the fact that it still felt _weird_ to be the head of a ninja clan. I was originally the heir to the leadership of the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi, succeeding my father, but that was to be many years in the future. Now, with the clan's destruction, it had become necessary for me to lead the new clan. It had seemed sheer folly, six years ago, to attempt to resurrect the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi when only four members remained. And so, as the Hitoshirezu Buke had become the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi centuries ago, now the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi became in turn the Oukoku Fukei. And as the oldest of the leading family, it came to me to be the clan head.

I found King Albert, Dragoon of the Jade Dragon, waiting in the courtyard, still in Dragoon form. "Your Majesty," I said in a grave tone. Then I grinned. "Seriously, Albert, what brings you here?"

"Ian, good to see you. I hoped you were around." He clasped my forearm in greeting. "And still the same as six years ago."

I snorted. "Of course I'm still the same. I don't age, remember?" That was a fact few knew; six years ago, shortly before Melbu Frahma's final defeat, I had come into possession of a Wingly artifact that stopped aging. Another effect, one that only two people besides myself knew about, was to prevent death. Fatal injuries healed too fast for them to actually _be_ fatal. "So what brings you here? Something that couldn't wait for my report in Bale next week?"

"Perhaps we should discuss this in your office?"

I shrugged. "Let's go, then."

* * *

After we'd settled into the comfortable arm chairs in the private meeting room off my office, I looked at Albert. "So what's this sensitive matter you needed to discuss?"

He leaned back. "Remember the explosion caused by the Moon That Never Sets when it was destroyed six years back?"

I lit a pipe, a habit I'd acquired since becoming immune to pesky little problems like lung cancer. "Hard to forget. Rose and I nearly died there, you know. What about it?"

"A scouting party I sent there three months ago reported that there's a dimensional distortion at the site of the explosion. It leads to another world."

I raised an eyebrow. "Another one? Sure it's not Earth? Your people wouldn't necessarily know the difference."

Albert shook his head. "It's not. My scouts were there long enough to learn the natives call it Spira. They also found that the population was scared stiff of something called 'Sin'."

"'Sin', huh? And I suppose you want my ninja to investigate?" Fairly standard procedure; I had several promising apprentices who could do the job.

"Not exactly," he said, grimacing. "You see, members of the Court in Bale apparently found the chronicle you left in the Indels Library."

"'The Story of the Diamond Dragoon'? Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like the consequences of this, Albert?" I had never really believed anyone would read the thing; I just left it in case the events were forgotten someday and someone managed to stumble across it. I had never counted on it being found during this generation.

"Well, it seems they copied it and the entire Court has read it now. Before, you were just the foreigner who led my special troops; now, the government has found that you too are a Dragoon and were involved in the Second Dragon Campaign. They all but demanded that you be the one sent when the scouts returned. 'Only the best' and all that."

"Obutsu," I muttered. "This is exactly why I stuck that benighted book in the least-frequented section of the library. I prefer to work anonymously."

"Out of the question this time, my friend. I did manage to get them to refrain from releasing it to the public, so at least you won't be swamped with tourists." Albert glanced around. "That reminds me, where's Karen? I'd have thought she'd be up and about by now. Always full of energy."

I grinned. "She's out your way, Albert. Some kind of shopping trip in Bale, with Meru."

He smiled back. "And visiting Lavitz, no doubt?"

"Naturally." I glanced at the clock on the wall; I'd imported batteries from Earth, two years ago. "She's due back tomorrow. We should be ready to leave a day or two after that."

"'We'?"

I nodded. "Of course. You didn't think I'd go alone, did you? It'll be four of us: myself, Ryan, Karen, and of course Rose. That's another reason it'll take a few days, in fact. Rose is in Seles right now, visiting Dart and Shana. And Zieg's grave." After I was forced to kill him by Melbu Frahma, Dart and Shana had taken Zieg's body with them and buried him in the Seles cemetery. The last time I'd actually been there was for their wedding the year before; it wasn't too often that I could get away for sightseeing.

"Well, anything you need, just send for from Bale."

"One thing, Albert. Did your scouting party happen to pick up the shards of Arashi-Jisan? I was only able to recover the hilt that day."

Albert nodded. "Yes, they did. I'll have them sent here as soon as I get back to Bale."

"Thanks. I've gone six years without a ninja blade. It's time Arashi-Jisan was reforged."

* * *

Albert had to leave shortly after that; whereas I had people I could turn to for day-to-day affairs, Albert was the king. He couldn't just go off to personally lead a battle or take a vacation. If this matter hadn't been so important, he'd have called me to the capitol, not come to the Shrine.

After he left, I headed for the watchtower near the entrance, where my brother Ryan was overseeing the two-student lookout. The watch was more than just an exercise; there were those that distrusted and disliked the newest branch of King Albert's military, and some of them tried to do something about it. None who had attempted it had survived, of course.

Ryan turned as I entered the tower. "Thought you might be looking for me soon, Ian. What was Albert doing here? Isn't your next report next week?"

"He's got a mission for us, Brother. Us, specifically. The various nobles back in Bale practically demanded I be sent, and I'm not about to go on this one alone."

"Why you, niisan?"

I grimaced. "Remember that book I wrote after we kicked Melbu Frahma's hippu? Seems someone found it a few hundred years early."

Ryan laughed. "I told you that thing would come back to haunt you. Even you didn't seem too enthused about it. 'That benighted book'. Wasn't that what you called it back then? When do we leave, anyway?"

"It'll be a couple days yet. We have to wait for Karen and Rose to get back."

He grinned. "Of course, you'd never go anywhere without Rose now, eh?"

I glared at him. "Ryan. Shut up."

* * *

The next day, Karen returned, bringing with her the shards of Arashi-Jisan. Albert had apparently thought it more convenient to simply send them with her.

Meru was with her when I reached the gate. "Meru! What are you doing here? I thought you'd have headed back to the Forest."

She grinned. "When Karen told me what was up, I decided to tag along and see you off. By the way, Lloyd sent you this." Meru tossed me the Dragon Buster, the weapon Rose and I had used to kill Melbu.

I held it up. "I thought this was destroyed. It wasn't anywhere around where we ended up."

"It's a Wingly magic weapon," she replied. "Objects made using Wingly magic tend to survive almost anything."

"I guess. So how's Miranda doing these days?" I asked, referring to one of the White-Silver Dragoons we had traveled with during what later became known as the Second Dragon Campaign.

"About the same as always. Berating the people rebuilding the Crystal Palace, and the knights, and anyone else who gets too close."

"Well, thanks for the delivery, Meru. But if you want to see us off, you'll have to stay a couple days. We need to wait for Rose to get back from Seles, and I need the time to reforge Arashi-Jisan. You know the way to the guest quarters, right?"

She mock-glared. "Do you really think I've forgotten? I _am_ a Wingly, you know. Far superior to you humans."

I waved a hand. "Ahh, whatever. C'mon, Karen, we've got things to do."

* * *

The next couple of days were rather hectic, what with arranging schedules so that one sensei could do the job of four, preparing supplies, and of course reforging my blade.

After three days of preparations, we were finally ready for the journey. We took the Tiberoan _Queen Fury_ to the coast nearest the Divine Lake, as the place where the Divine Tree once stood was now called, and then flew to the crater rim.

"I never thought I'd see this place again…" I murmured. "Where my story nearly ended…"

Rose laid a hand on my shoulder. "And where our new story begins."

"Yes…" Ryan looked down on the place where he had nearly lost a brother. "Maybe this time it won't be as critical…"

"Don't hold your breath, Ryan." Karen said. "We seem to attract world-saving quests."

I gazed at the swirling portal before us. _At least this time I go prepared._ I wore a long, black coat with a hole in the back for my sword, Raiden-Ken, to protrude from. Migi-no-te I had left behind, in a place of honor at the dojo.

I had a single pistol in a shoulder holster under my coat, and hypodermics filled with a vampire-killing serum Ryan had developed were strapped to my left arm, near the shoulder. On my left leg were several silver stakes, and I wore modern body armor on my chest and back. This time, I was leaving nothing to chance, including the possibility of encountering vampires in this "Spira".

"Let's go." I said at last, and we stepped through the portal into another world…

* * *

Author's note: And so begins the Second Story of the Diamond Dragoon. Read it and let me know what you think.

Not much that I didn't translate in the chapter itself: "Obutsu" means "garbage", "hippu" is "backside", and "Raiden-Ken" translates as "thunder and lightning blade". If you've read the first story, you'll understand the other references. ~Solid Shark


	2. Chapter 2: Sin's Attack

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, and Kenji Okamura

* * *

The terrain that greeted us when we emerged from the portal seemed to be that of a tropical island. This fitted with the scout report, and I now knew for certain that this was not Earth. That flora and fauna didn't come from Earth _or_ Endiness; I'd been through enough of both planets to know that.

"So where do we go from here?" Ryan asked.

Karen pulled the scouting report out of her pack. "There's supposed to be a ship at the dock near here. I'd say that's our best bet."

"Let's go, then. I don't think we're going to find out much on this island. Which reminds me; did the scouts find out what this island is called?"

She shuffled through the report. "Besaid Island. There's one village about a mile from here, with some kind of temple in the back."

"Let's play it by ear, guys. If somebody asks where we're from, let me do the talking. And whatever you do, _don't_ display modern Earth technology if you can avoid it. Albert mentioned a distinct anti-tech sentiment here. We need information, and we won't get it if we tick off the entire populous. Okay? Then let's get going."

* * *

After a short walk, we found ourselves at a dock, where a group that appeared to be of some importance was boarding the ship.

"Looks like there's no fee for the ship," I muttered to the others. "Let's board."

As we walked to pier, I was careful to keep my cloak over my gun; an Ingram Model 11 machine pistol, while somewhat crude-looking, was bound to be recognized as high technology of some sort.

We embarked just in time; as soon as we were aboard, the ship left the dock and headed for open ocean. Once the ship set sail, one of the group I'd noted earlier, a tanned fellow whose hair appeared to need a lobotomy, walked over to us. "Haven't seen you around before. You guys going to Kilika too, yah?"

"That's right," I replied, though until that moment we'd had no idea where the ship was headed. "I'm Ian, this is my brother Ryan, my sister Karen, and this is Rose. We're from the remote island of Nippon, so don't be surprised if we ask odd questions. We haven't had much contact with the rest of Spira."

The big guy stuck out his hand. "I'm Wakka. Remote island, yah? Sin cause problems there, too?"

"Actually, we don't even know what Sin is." Which was true enough, and I was confident that our cover story would keep that from sounding odd.

"You're lucky. Ever since the machina war a thousand years ago, Sin's been coming. Once we've atoned for our past mistakes, then Sin will be gone, but we don't know when that'll be." Wakka shook his head. "Till then, we gotta keep our faith in Yevon, yah? That's why we're going to Kilika. Lulu, Kimahri, and I are guardians, protecting Yuna in her summoner's pilgrimage. Summoners defeat Sin every ten years, giving Spira ten years of Calm. Someday, we'll have an Eternal Calm, and Yuna just might be the one to do it."

I nodded. "I see. So who's the guy in yellow over there?" I indicated a blond-haired fellow with some kind of armor on his left arm.

Wakka shrugged. "Not really sure. His name's Tidus, but that's about all even he knows. Well, that and playing blitzball. He had a close encounter with Sin, and that sometimes makes you lose your memory for a while, yah? He's lucky he remembers his name."

"So what's at Kilika that's important for a summoner?" This Wakka was being quite helpful, and had already given us some much-needed information.

"Kilika Temple. Summoners pray at the temples and, if their prayer is answered, receive that temple's aeon. That's the summoner's power."

"Interesting." I straightened from my leaning position against the rail. "Well, thanks, Wakka. Maybe we'll see you at the temple there."

After Wakka walked away, I turned to my group. "So, what do you think?"

Karen looked thoughtful. "He sounded kind of depressed when he spoke of the pilgrimage. I think there's more to it than he said."

"I'd say they've provided us with a good way of gathering the information Albert wants," Rose said. "We follow them. I get the feeling they attract trouble."

I smiled. "You mean like us?"

Ryan looked at me, then Rose, then back to me. "Oh, no. I know that look. Ian, come on, I did _not_ sign on for another save-the-world trip. _Please_ tell me you're not really going to do this-"

"Ryan, first of all, you didn't volunteer, you followed orders. Second, I got another message from Albert before we left. This isn't just a fact-finding mission. He wants us to find out what's going on and do something about it."

He put his head in his hands. "Not again. I _hate_ it when he gets into save-the-world-or-die-trying mode…" He trailed off, muttering to himself.

* * *

The first couple hours of the voyage were uneventful, but that proved to be merely the calm before the storm, for Sin itself was on the way.

It began when the sea, previously calm, became rough and the waves rode high, threatening to sink the ship. Then the fin rose from the depths.

"Sin!" One of the sailors cried out and raced for one of the harpoon guns mounted on the bow.

"What are you doing!?" Wakka yelled. "You hit him with that and we'll all be dragged under!"

"It's headed for Kilika!" the sailor yelled back. "Our families are in Kilika!"

"Forgive us, Lady Summoner!" This from the crewman manning the other gun. Then they both fired, and the only thing on our minds was avoiding falling overboard.

One harpoon connected, and the ship was dragged in close to Sin. Once we were close, Wakka and the other "guardians", one a Gothic-looking woman in black, carrying a doll of some kind, the other a nonhuman warrior with a spear, moved to the bow and prepared for battle. Meanwhile, the summoner, Yuna, pulled out a staff, and the amnesiac Tidus drew a bizarre sword.

As I struggled to keep my footing, I turned to Rose. "We can't let the amateurs handle this alone!" I shouted, trying to be heard over the roaring sea. "Let's go!"

I tossed off my coat, then drew Raiden-Ken. Making my way quickly but carefully to the bow deck, I finally leapt into the air, slicing some kind of monster along the way.

The experienced guardians gave us barely a glance when we joined the fray, but Tidus looked startled. "Keep your mind on the battle, kid, if you want to live through this!" I jumped easily to the railing, then took a flying leap at another batch of monsters that were on their way to us. "Raiden Kai!"

Ryan was hurling _kuji_ spells at the fin itself, while Karen and Rose were guarding the deck with the summoner's group.

I had to duck on one occasion when Wakka's weapon, a ball of some sort, sailed through the space where my head had just been. "Watch it, newbie! That could have taken my head off!"

"You watch it! Battles aren't the place for amateurs, yah!?" Somehow, he managed to catch his weapon, only to throw it again. "You could get hurt!"

"Amateur!? Listen, Wakka, when this is over, there's some things you need to get straight!" I ducked, then used a _kuji_ teleportation spell to get over the fin and drop a small explosive on it.

Finally, the fin moved off, but it took the harpoon gun with it and knocked Tidus overboard. Wakka jumped after him, while we waited on the deck.

When they returned, Ryan spoke. _"That_ was the high-and-mighty Sin?" As usual, his voice contained more than a bit of sarcasm.

Before Wakka could explode in righteous true-believer anger, Yuna spoke up. "Thank you for your help there."

I bowed. "My pleasure, Lady Summoner."

"Call me Yuna, please. Will you also be going to Kilika Temple…?"

"I'm Ian. These are Rose, my brother Ryan, and my sister Karen. And, yes, we are heading for the temple. We don't know much about the rest of Spira where we come from."

"You're welcome to travel with us, then. If my guardians don't mind…?" Yuna turned to Wakka.

"That's okay with me. You guys fought pretty well there, yah? The more like you around, the safer Yuna is."

I nodded. "Then we shall, thank you. But, Wakka," I said, turning. "You need to get some things straight. First of all, I'm older than you are."

Wakka shook his head. "Wait a minute. I'm twenty-three. You can't be more than eighteen, yah?"

I half-smiled. "Appearances can be deceiving. I'm twenty-four."

His eyes widened. "No way. Appearances don't deceive that much."

"I don't age." I grinned as he gaped. "Ryan and I were born identical twins, in the year 1985 A.D., by our reckoning. That was twenty-four years ago. Six years ago, I stopped aging, via a form of magic you wouldn't understand and I'm not prepared to tell you about yet anyway. Ryan is now a year older, physically, but he, too, ceased aging. As did my sister, a year after that. Rose is a lot older than she looks, as well, but I'm not going to go into specifics. That's why I called your friend here 'kid'. You're, what, seventeen?"

"Yeah," Tidus replied.

"Another point is that I've been training in the martial arts all my life. I was thirteen the first time I killed a man, and fourteen the first time I faced multiple opponents. Since then, I've faced the most horrifying creatures in existence. So don't you call _me_… an _amateur._"

I turned away, heading below decks to rest, picking up my coat along the way.

* * *

Author's note: First of all, to answer Dragon God I's question, there's more than one reason I chose to write this crossover story instead of something returning to Earth. For one thing, it was stated in Chapter 13 of The Story of the Diamond Dragoon that the Takaharis would have no reason to go back. Also, I felt that the Legend of Dragoon would mesh better with a world already familiar with magic.

For those new to the adventures of the Diamond Dragoon, I realize are events and abilities mentioned here that aren't elaborated on, such as _kuji, _and, of course, the characters themselves. However, if you read The Story of the Diamond Dragoon, the original fic involving Ian Takahari, everything is explained there, with the exceptions, of course, of the events that occurred between the two fics.

The translations for this chapter: "Nippon" is another word for Japan, and "Raiden Kai" means "Thunder and Lightning Cut".

Read it and let me know what you think. ~Solid Shark


	3. Chapter 3: Nightmares

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Cassius

***

__

My surroundings were surreal, a castle were the walls were fluid and nothing was as it seemed. Coffins lined the walls, flowing with them. Mocking laughter came from nowhere and everywhere.

I moved as if mired in sand, struggling to get to the throne at the other end of the room. Something or someone important was there, I knew. But I didn't know how I knew or what it was I was struggling to reach.

"I'm coming for you, Takahari," came the voice from the throne. "Soon, you'll belong to us…"

"Never!" I heard my voice say. "I am not like you, Cassius! I will not be turned!"

"Ah, but it has already begun, and you know it. I'll be waiting for you…" The world begun to melt away around me…

***

"Ian, wake up. Wake up!"

I awoke with a start, Raiden-Ken flashing in an arc even before I became fully conscious. Another blade clashed against it. "Whoa, Ian, relax, it was just a dream! You were having a nightmare, okay?"

My eye focused. "Ryan? What's going on?" I carefully sheathed my katana, confused. Was that a dream?

"You were having a nightmare, Ian," he said sheathing his own blade. "It sounded like you were arguing with someone."

I narrowed my eye. "I was talking in my sleep?"

Ryan chuckled. "More like shouting. But the only intelligible thing you said was the name 'Cassius'. Who's- Ian?"

My face had paled, and my blood ran cold. _Cassius. After all this time? This is just what I do not need._

"Who's Cassius, Ian?" Ryan asked quietly. "And don't try to tell me you don't know. I've never seen you that scared."

"With any luck, Ryan, you'll never have to know that." And I said no more. Cassius was the name I hated and feared more than any other.

I shook myself. "Anyway, how long till we reach Kilika?"

"We dock in about ten minutes." Ryan had apparently realized he wasn't going to get anything more out me about Cassius. "Thing is, it looks like we didn't distract Sin for very long. From the looks of things, Kilika was hit pretty bad."

"Wonderful. Got any more bad news, or is that it?"

He shrugged. "Just odd news, if that's any help. Yuna said something about performing a 'sending' once we arrive, if there's no other summoner in the area."

"A 'sending'? I guess this _is_ a weird place. Well, I suppose we're gonna find out, but I don't know if we're gonna like it."

***

A pair of villagers were waiting for Yuna when we debarked. "If there is no other summoner, I will perform the sending," she said to them.

"Thank you, my lady," one of the villagers replied.

"Our loved ones, we feared they would become fiends," said the other.

"Please, take me to them."

What followed was one of the most surreal sights I have ever seen. Yuna walked calmly off the pier, literally walking on water.

"What's a sending?" I heard Tidus ask Lulu. "Are we going somewhere?"

Lulu sighed. "You _are_ clueless, aren't you? Are you sure it's just your memory that's the problem?" She sighed again and went on. "The dead refuse to accept their fates, and long to live on. They envy the living, and gradually this envy turns to anger, and even hate. If they are not sent, they become fiends which pray on the living. The sending takes them to the Farplane, where they may rest in peace."

I paid little attention to the exchange; my gaze was riveted to the bizarre ritual occurring on the water. Yuna had begun some kind of dance, and I could feel the magic forces moving.

When the surreal dance was over, I was almost as in the dark on the subject as before. As I prepared for sleep a few minutes later, however, I thought on another matter. I had a bad feeling about how my night was going to go. If the dream came again…

***

I awoke the next morning gasping, already on my feet and holding Raiden-Ken in my right hand. And I was terrified. The previous time was not a fluke; and if the dreams were coming again, it could only mean that Cassius, the terror I had long thought dead, was still alive. The dreams came only by his will, when he was near.

Of all the things and being I had encountered in twenty-four years, the only horrors that I feared greater than Cassius were those of Mayfil, and Mayfil at least had the virtue of being rooted to the ground. The great legionnaire, known long ago as _Centurion_ Cassius, had no such limits.

I kept these thoughts to myself as we set out for the Temple, though I was sure my companions knew me well enough to know I was ill at ease. Fortunately, they also knew that if my problem became theirs, I would say so immediately. Until then they would leave me in peace.

Not far in, Yuna's group paused. "Huh? What's up?" Wakka asked.

"Yuna says she wants Tidus to be her guardian," Lulu replied.

I raised my eyebrows. "I wonder what's up with those two…" I murmured to Rose. "As far as I know, Tidus has only been around here for a couple days. Isn't she a little too trusting?"

Rose shrugged. "Dart, Lavitz, and Shana trusted you right away. Just as you trusted them."

"I guess you're right."

I turned my attention back to the others. "Me? A guardian?" Tidus sounded confused.

"I'm sorry," Yuna said. She appeared to be the sort that apologized for everything.

"It's nothing to apologize about. I'm just not really sure what's going on."

"We're all heading for the temple anyway, yah?" Wakka said. "Let's worry about this later."

As we continued on, I wrapped an arm around Rose. "I think that guy remembers more about himself than Wakka said."

She leaned against me. "What do you mean?"

"It's like he's hiding something. Something that he thinks either no one will believe, or would… isolate him, I guess, from the rest of the group. And…" I paused. "There's something not quite right about him. Almost as if he's not really here."

Rose looked up at me. "An illusion?"

"I don't know. But I've seen a lot of strange things over the years, including some pretty mean apparitions. I don't know what to make of Tidus, though. I've never encountered an illusion that could actually interact with the physical world, but it's pretty clear Tidus can do just that. Remember our fight with Sin." I smiled. "But I don't think it's anything we need to worry about, my love. I could be completely mistaken anyway."

***

Shortly after that, we ran into a monster called Lord Ochu. A group called the Crusaders, apparently also from Besaid, stayed well away from it. It seemed they had lost people to this fiend before, and weren't willing to risk it again.

I stepped toward it. "You guys are afraid of _that?_ I was killing things tougher than that years ago. Admittedly, it's ugly enough to throw you off a little, but _afraid?_ Give me a break." I glanced back. "I'll handle this."

After drawing Raiden-Ken, I began by slicing off its tentacles. That done, I launched into a fearsome combination attack that reduced the mighty plant to compost.

The leader of the Crusaders, a man by the name of Luzzu, walked up. "Well done. We'll have no more trouble from this fiend."

_That's an understatement, compadre. I just pruned the thing._

His second-in-command, Gatta, lead the other Crusaders forward, chanting. "Young Crusaders, gather round, we'll beat Sin into the ground…" His voice faded in the distance.

Tidus fell in with us as we moved on. "So you guys really don't age?"

I nodded. "That's right. Like I said, Ryan and I are twenty-four, and Karen's twenty-two."

"What about Rose?"

I laughed. "Rose? You wouldn't believe me if I told you, kid. Suffice it to say that she's a _lot_ older than you are." I glanced at him. "So what's on your mind, Tidus?"

He looked around, apparently making sure the rest of his group was out of earshot. "You're not from around here. Do you know anything about a place called Zanarkand?"

I thought for a moment. "No, can't say that I do. Why?"

"Well, Wakka and the others don't believe me, but I'm from Zanarkand. Since coming to Spira, I've heard that it was destroyed a thousand years ago. But if that's true, how could I be from there?"

I nodded thoughtfully. "I see a couple of possibilities. First of all, it could just be some place with the same name as your home. Where I come from, there are quite of few places whose names are shared with other cities. It's also possible that you're a thousand years old yourself."

Tidus blinked. "A thousand years old!? No way."

"Actually, it's not that farfetched." I smiled at Rose. "I know of quite a few ways to survive that long. There's the magic that keeps me from aging, for instance, or you could have been in suspended animation. Being frozen in ice will do it, and certain types of magic will cause it, too. So don't despair yet, kid. You might not be able to go home, but at least it's highly possible that you're not crazy." I thought back, to the events of six years before. "I voluntarily gave up my home. I found a better place."

***

From there, the journey was uneventful for a time, until we reached the top of the steps to the Temple. "Sinspawn!" Wakka shouted.

Ryan shook his head. "Can't a guy take a simple walk without running into monsters?"

I drew my blade. "If you were that concerned about it, Ryan, you should have stayed home!"

He knew I wasn't referring to Endiness. "There's nothing for us there now, like you said. Anyway, I could use the practice." Ryan pulled out Soul Cleaver. "C'mon, let's do this."

I fingered my Dragoon Spirit beneath my coat, considering. I promptly discarded the notion; this "Sinspawn" probably wasn't dangerous enough to require Dragoons, and this wasn't the time to reveal our powers. Not yet. "Non Doragon Supirittsu!" I spoke in Japanese, so as not to overly puzzle our Spiran companions.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just let me kill it, okay!?" Karen, typically impatient, leapt up the remaining stairs, then stopped dead. "What's _that!?"_

_It_ consisted of a pair of tentacles and an ugly egg shape. I didn't know anything beyond that, but I did get the idea that it wasn't here to borrow some fertilizer.

Wakka was responding to Karen. "Didn't you hear me? That's Sinspawn, yah!?"

"I don't care what it is!" I snapped. "It's in our way, so we kill it!" I jumped at it, then faltered as an image sprang to mind: a vampire, showing its fangs. _I'm coming for you, Takahari…_

I fell back a step, then shook myself and resumed my battle stance. This wasn't the time to worry about Cassius.

Tidus had drawn his sword and was racing to one of the tentacles. "Spiral Cut!"

Lulu raised her odd doll. "Fire!" A blast of magic, not unlike Dart's fire magic or a _kuji_ spell, struck the other tentacle.

It had no effect. They seemed to absorb magic. Ryan apparently realized this and struck at the base of one, trying to sever it, while Rose gracefully swept her rapier at the other. "Demon's Dance!"

Wakka's blitzball sailed past me, followed by Kimahri with his spear. Then, having regained my balance, physical and mental, I rejoined the fight. "Raiden Kai!"

I cut down my target tentacle, but the other retaliated by picking me up and throwing me into a wall. "Ugh!" To top it off, I landed on my head, narrowly avoiding a near-fatal neck-break. Only nearly fatal, of course, since I still wore the ring Charle had given me years before.

Yuna, thus far silent, twirled her staff. "Cure!"

I hauled myself back to my feet. "Thanks, Yuna." By this time, both tentacles had been hacked down, and the egg was opening, to reveal something even uglier. "Enough! I've had enough of this thing!" I jumped into the air, raising my sword before me. "Rakurai!" A bolt of lightning connected Raiden-Ken with the Sinspawn for a split-second, and then there was a crackling as the fiend fried like an oyster.

I hit the ground near Rose. "What are you looking at?" I demanded of Yuna's group, now staring at me. "It's dead, so now we can move on to the Temple."

***

When we reached the Temple itself, we found a team of blitzball players leaving it. Judging from the reaction Wakka and his team, the Besaid Aurochs, these rivals were not well-liked.

"The Luca Goers," an Aurochs murmured.

Wakka walked right up to them. "You guys here to pray for victory too?"

The lead Goer laughed. "We don't need to pray for victory. We're praying for some decent competition this year." He looked derisively at the Aurochs. "So, you gonna 'do your best' again? Too bad you best isn't good enough."

"Actually, we're playing to win this time," Tidus said.

The Goers laughed openly. "You've never even won a game!"

I stepped forward and scowled at them. "You are falling prey to the twin errors of overconfidence and underestimating your opponent."

"And I suppose you're a big, bad warrior, huh? Don't make me laugh."

"Then perhaps I can make you scream," I said. My blade was abruptly at the Goer's throat. "You need to learn to overcome your arrogance, baka." I let him worry a moment longer, then snapped the blade away and let the now-shaken team pass.

After they left, I bowed to Yuna and gestured for her to pass, then turned to my companions. "I'm staying out here. Anyone going in?"

Karen and Ryan chose to, while Rose remained outside with me. "What's wrong, Ian?" she asked. "I've never seen you hesitate in a battle before. And you clearly haven't been sleeping well."

I sighed. "You know me too well." I leaned back, organizing my thoughts. "I've been having dreams. I know, dreams don't necessarily mean anything, but these do. They only come when Cassius is near."

Rose frowned. "Cassius?"

"Two thousand years ago, during the reign of Julius Caesar, Cassius was a centurion in the Roman Legions, on Earth. The day Caesar was assassinated, Cassius was bitten by a vampire. It was thus that he became one himself, and for two thousand years, he preyed upon humans. Ten years ago, I had the misfortune to encounter him. I had just begun my own vampire hunting career, and was not yet knowledgeable enough about his kind. He bit me."

Her eyes widened. "What? But you're not a vampire…"

I sighed again. "It didn't quite take. It gave me their strength and regenerative abilities, without their thirst and other weaknesses. But if Cassius manages to bite me again, I'll be lost. I thought I killed him a year before I arrived in Endiness, but he somehow survived. And he is literally the most terrifying being I have ever encountered."

"And he's coming…" Rose slowly nodded. "And he sends you the dreams to unsettle you."

"Basically. My only chance is to kill him. If I can manage that, the bite marks-" I pulled at a disguised bandage on my neck, revealing the fang marks "-will fade, and I'll be a normal human again. But I don't know that I can do it."

Rose laid a hand on my arm. "You won't be facing him alone."

I pulled her close. "I know."

***

Author's note: Chapter 3 complete. First, to answer Dragon God I's questions, I tend not to start a fic at the beginning of a game because it's usually easier to introduce an OC at a later point. As to your other points, yes they did bring their Dragoon Spirits, Ian's siblings did receive magic artifacts from Charle as well, and I haven't yet decided about the other Dragoons.

The translations for this chapter: "Non Doragon Supirittsu" roughly translates as "no Dragoon Spirits", and "Rakurai" means "Thunderbolt".

That should about cover it. Read it and let me know what you think. ~Solid Shark


	4. Chapter 4: Dragoons Revealed

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Cassius

Note: This chapter begins from Ryan's POV.

***

While Ian and Rose chose to stay outside, Karen and I entered Kilika Temple. Crackpot religions, in my experience, were always interesting.

Technically, only summoners and their guardians were allowed to enter the "Cloister of Trials" that lay within the temple, and only summoners could enter the "Fayth" at the end.

I never did care much about technicalities.

Despite knowing that Ian probably wouldn't approve (he never did have the best sense of humor) I snuck into the Cloister of Trials while Karen distracted anyone who might notice me by asking a lot of questions.

The first thing that I noticed was that the place had way too much fire. In order to pass, I was forced to carefully follow Tidus, who had somehow gotten himself in, as well. The second thing that I noticed was that the architects of the place had a taste for the convoluted puzzle.

I concluded that this was not a good place for those of low IQ, which lead me to wonder how Wakka had navigated the place. He didn't seem terribly imaginative to me.

I avoided notice after reaching the end of the Cloister by using a _kuji _invisibility spell Ian taught me, allowing me to stand in plain sight without being seen. From there, I was in a position to observe Lulu and Wakka's reactions to Tidus's appearance.

"What are you doing here?" Lulu demanded.

"It was Donna and Barthello," Tidus replied hastily, referring to a rather rude summoner and guardian pair they had encountered in the main room of the Temple. "They threw me down here."  
Lulu shook her head. "Yuna may be the one to pay the price."

"What 'price'?"

"She could be excommunicated."

I chose that moment to become visible. "What do they do in there, pray to the mouse god?" Lulu started to turn her wrath on me, and I continued unhurriedly. "Before you ask what _I'm_ doing here, let's just say that I have a bad case of curiosity."

Wakka shook his head. "Only summoners, apprentice summoners, and their guardians are allowed here." He glared at me for a moment. "Is nothing sacred?"

"How did you get in here?" Lulu demanded. "You shouldn't have been able to."

I grinned; Ian _really_ wasn't going to be happy. "Let's just say my siblings and I are _very_ good infiltrators." I glanced at Wakka. "As for those taboos, well, I never was known for being respectful. Ask anybody."

Kimahri, of course, was silent. I had by now come to the conclusion that either he couldn't speak, or saw no reason to. I suspected the latter; sometimes pretending to be mute makes people assume that you are also deaf. It could also be that he didn't speak to those he didn't consider worthy; if so, I could sympathize.

***

I waited around there until Yuna emerged, then left. I figured I might as well get through Ian's irritation and be done with it.

He and Rose were off by the trees together, talking. No surprise there; they were even closer than Karen and Lavitz. Of course, Ian and Rose at least lived in the same area; Karen had to go all the way to Bale to see Lavitz.

Ian turned when I got near. "Okay, Ryan, who have you been aggravating this time?"

I grinned. "Oh, only about a temple's worth of religious nuts. You see, they've got this idea about who may and may not go places. I just… disturbed it."

Ian shook his head. "Ryan, when are you going to learn that you can't go ticking off everyone you meet? There _are_ such things as tact and respect, you know." He turned away, resuming his conversation with Rose.

I frowned. Normally Ian would have torn a strip off my hide for a stunt like that. Now, something else seemed to be on his mind. Something that was disturbing him greatly.

That, combined with the nightmares that had been scaring him stiff, gave me the idea that something really, really bad was going on.

Rose probably knew what it was; anything Ian knew, Rose knew, just as everything Rose knew, Ian knew. They trusted each other implicitly. Unfortunately, these days Ian was far more likely to confide in Rose than in me, so it wasn't likely I'd get much warning if something _did_ happen. I'd just have to be on my guard.

***

We didn't remain there long; once Yuna's group emerged from the temple, we headed back through the forest to Kilika, then boarded the boat to Luca.

Ian was clearly becoming more nervous by then moment. Whatever was coming was coming soon. I kept the Soul Cleaver loose in its scabbard; the threat could come at any moment.

My caution was justified: An hour after we left Kilika, Ian abruptly stiffened and spun around, just as a bat shape was landing on the deck and changing form. A vampire, obviously.

Ian's expression was a curious mixture of terror and pure, raging fury. _"Cassius!"_ he screamed, then leapt forward, coat fluttering to the deck behind him and Raiden-Ken flashing out its scabbard. _"Temae kakushigo!"_

The vampire, Cassius, laughed. "I told you I was coming for you, Takahari. Now you will be fully turned!"

_"Never!"_ Ian swung his blade in an intricate combination, trying frantically to kill Cassius as quickly as possible.

Cassius swatted aside the attack with contemptuous ease, using a gladius he had drawn from somewhere. "Is that all you've got?" To my shock, he easily knocked Raiden-Ken out of Ian's hand. I had never seen Ian lose his blade like that.

Then Cassius lifted him off his feet. "It's over, Takahari. You've lost."

I was too far away, but Rose wasn't. The katana Ian had given her during the Second Dragon Campaign, Doragon-Adauchi, swept through Cassius's arm, and Ian dropped.

***

Return to Ian's POV

***

I dropped to the ground, gasping. "We'll meet again, Takahari!" Cassius said as he fled. "Count on it!" He flung himself over the side while I lay on the deck, trying to catch my breath.

Rose helped me to my feet. "Are you all right, Ian?"

I coughed. "I will be. Thanks." I retrieved Raiden-Ken. "Another few seconds, and it would have been over."

"I couldn't let that happen." She looked me over. "You're sure you're all right?"

"Except for damaged confidence, yeah." I massaged my throat. "That bastard. I thought he was dead." I glanced around. "Did Yuna and company see it?"

"I don't think so. The water covered the sound of your screaming," Rose added dryly.

I shrugged. "He made me angry, that's all." I sighed. "I'm sick to death of fighting vampires. They're bloody hard to kill, and all they have to do to spread their virus is to bite someone, making my job a lot more difficult."

"No help for it, niisan." Ryan walked over. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, yeah. Nothing to worry about." I finally straightened. "Let me guess. You want to know who Cassius is."

"That'd be a start," he agreed. "I've never seen you that scared of _anything_ outside of Mayfil."

"Well, I'll admit that not even Cassius holds a candle to the horrors we found there, but he _is_ the most terrifying thing short of Mayfil."

I told Ryan the same thing I had told Rose. When I finished, he whistled silently. "So _that's_ what you meant back on the Moon That Never Sets, when you said there was more to your hatred of vampires."

"Exactly. For ten years, I've lived with the knowledge that if I met him again, I would almost certainly be turned. Seven years ago, I thought he was dead; normally, even a vampire doesn't survive when a castle collapses on him. But he is one of the ancient vampires, the powerful ones of old. He might appear as a mist in the night sky, or a bat, or any number of things. If you thought Count Draco von Schneider was a powerful adversary, you'll be unpleasantly surprised by Cassius. Draco was never more than an irritant for me, but Cassius is the very definition of terror."

***

By nightfall, things had quieted. The sea was calm, the crew were quietly going about their work. The passengers were fairly quiet, even. And the Luca Goers, of course, stayed well away from me. They wouldn't soon forget the scare I gave them at Kilika Temple.

Yuna's party had split up for a time; Wakka and Lulu on the upper deck, Yuna and Tidus talking near the bow, and no sign at all of Kimahri. The big Ronso presumably had Ronso things to do.

I was by the port railing, thinking, when Rose walked over. "Hello, Rose."

"Ian." She leaned against the railing next to me. "What are you doing?"

"Just thinking." I gazed at the silent ocean. "Today, I came far too close to a fate worse than death. If I'd been alone, I'd be a vampire by now."

"But you weren't alone. You're not alone."

"I know. Thanks." I pulled my Dragoon Spirit out of my coat and looked at the glowing, black stone. "The day is coming soon when we will have to reveal these. I can feel it."

Rose nodded. "Yes. It is said that the Dragoon Spirits manipulate fate, but perhaps it is also true that fate manipulates the Dragoon Spirits."

I snorted. "I've defied 'fate' before. So have you. And together, the Dragoons stopped 'the will of Soa' six years ago. 'Fate' has no power over me."

***

We arrived in Luca the next morning, which happened to be the day of the blitzball tournament that was Wakka's other reason for being there. The Besaid Aurochs would be trying once more to win the cup.

I kept my own opinion to myself; I don't think Wakka would appreciate my saying that when a team hasn't won a game in all the time it has existed, it's not likely to change simply because a new player, no matter how talented Tidus might be, joined up. Ryan, of course, would have said it outright, but he never was the most respectful or tactful person.

I listened with half my attention as an announcer introduced the team from Besaid. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the Besaid Aurochs! They're a living, breathing, statistical impossibility! I've never seen a team this bad."

_I still don't think they can win, but the announcer there has the same problem the Goers have: overconfidence._

I completely ignored the fanfare that erupted when one Maester Seymour Guado was introduced. A maester may have been a ruler, but I acknowledged the leadership of only one man. I did note, however, that something didn't seem right about him. Something… malevolent. But I doubted it concerned me.

The arrival of a second maester was something I was forced to take notice of. When Grand Maester Mika appeared at the gangway of the ship Seymour had just left, Wakka nudged me. "Hey! You bow, too."

I turned on him, my remaining eye blazing with fury. "I bow to one man and one man only, Wakka! This… _maester_ isn't him. I couldn't care less if this was his one hundredth year of leadership, let alone fiftieth." As Wakka sputtered, I turned to my companions. "Rose, Ryan, Karen, come on. Let's take a look around."

***

Shortly after the start of the first blitzball game, Tidus, Lulu, and Kimahri caught up with us. "Tidus? What's the rush?"

Out of breath, he paused near us. "The Al Bhed have kidnapped Yuna!"

I frowned. Wakka had mentioned the Al Bhed before; some kind of high-tech civilization that rejected Yevon and thus received Wakka's eternal ire. "Why would they do that?"

"Trying to make us lose the game! The first match is against the Al Bhed Psyches!"

I quickly came to a decision. "Then let's go. I don't like kidnappers."

The Al Bhed weren't the most imaginative abductors; it was obvious that Yuna had been taken to the most logical (and thus worst possible) place: the ship they came in on.

One of them tried to stop us when we got close; I simply picked him up and tossed him into the water. Being mostly sea-traveling nomads, it was unlikely he'd drown; even if he did, it was no more than he deserved for this stunt.

From there, our only obstacle was an Al Bhed machine, and a respectably powerful one at that. It even resisted Raiden-Ken's blows. "So now what!?"

Lulu spotted a nearby crane. "Perhaps we can use that."

"If it's got any power." I quickly moved over to it. "Don't suppose this thing takes AAs," I muttered to myself. "Try thunder magic on it!" I shouted back to Lulu.

After a few blasts of that, Tidus was able to get the crane working, and our target was effecting turned into junk by the simply expedient of removing large chunks of it.

Yuna herself came on deck just afterwards; evidently, the Al Bhed had miscalculated, and she had freed herself from the guards inside. "Yuna! Are you alright!?" Tidus asked.

"Yes. Thank you." Yuna looked at Tidus as he began to check the ship. "What is it?"

He stopped. "When I first arrived in Spira, I was rescued by an Al Bhed ship. I was kinda hoping this was the same one, but it's not."

"Was there a man named Cid aboard that ship?"

"I don't know. I couldn't understand what they were saying, anyway. Why? Who's Cid?"

Yuna paced. "He's my uncle, on my mother's side. I've never met him, but my father said that, if I was ever in trouble, I should go see him."

Tidus did a double take. "Does that mean… you're Al Bhed?"

Lulu nodded. "Yes. But don't tell Wakka. He hates the Al Bhed."

Tidus jerked again. "Whoa! I gotta tell Wakka!"

Lulu stood. "I thought I told you _not_ to tell Wakka!"

Yuna understood. "The game!"

They hurried off, leaving me bemused. I'd always found sports boring. A good way to break bones and lose teeth, and nothing else.

***

The Aurochs had defeated the Psyches, which apparently meant they would go on to the finals, against the Luca Goers. Wakka would have to sit this one out, though: he'd been injured in the first match. Tidus would take his place.

I paid little attention. I couldn't care less who won, and something didn't seem right. I suspected things were about to get hairy.

I was right. Less than a minute after the Aurochs creamed the Goers, fiends began to appear all over the stadium. To make matters worse, some of them were airborne. "Come on!" I shouted to my companions. "Yuna's probably going to need our help in a minute here!"

It didn't take long to rendezvous with Yuna, Lulu, and Kimahri. When we did, I turned to Yuna. "May we offer our assistance?"

"Yes, thank you. There are many fiends here."

"How did they get here?" Lulu mused. "They shouldn't have been able to get in."

"Forget it!" I snapped, then turned. "Dragoons, transform!" As one, we held out our Dragoon Spirits, and the changes began. Rose, floating in a black orb, to emerge in her deep violet, stylized armor of the Dark Dragoon; Karen, swallowed by a nova, coming out in the bright blue armor of the Starburst Dragoon; and Ryan, wavering out of existence, to reappear in the blood-red armor of the Dragoon of Time. Finally, as diamond covered me, I felt my own limbs lengthen and the power of dragons enter me as I became the warrior once foretold in prophecy: the Diamond Dragoon, whose black armor was impervious to normal weapons.

It was a transformation that I had not undergone in six years, not since the final defeat of Melbu Frahma and the destruction of the Moon That Never Sets. The half-forgotten rush of power was intoxicating. It was time to show the monsters of this world what a fatal mistake it was to aggravate Dragoons.

Yuna and her guardians stared at us as we hovered a few feet above the ground. "What… are you people?"

"I'd love to chat," I interrupted Lulu, "but we've got fiends to kill." I gained more altitude, holding my blade vertically. "No one of this world has ever faced a Dragoon, but I don't think they'll forget them!" I folded my wings, diving into the fray. My sword, edge keen enough to cut through steel like butter, easily sliced through the fiends I encountered.

Even so, the odds were against us. I had no doubt that _we_ would survive, but it would take a miracle to kill all the fiends before they killed spectators. And not even Dragoons were miracle workers.

As I flew past the spectators once more, I saw that Tidus and Wakka had survived the Sphere Pool and were fighting along side a man dressed in red, left arm slung samurai-style and wearing sunglasses. He carried a long, massive sword which he used to devastating effect, cleaving through fiends with an ease that rivaled Raiden-Ken itself.

_So that's the "Sir Auron" Yuna and Tidus were talking about, the "the legendary guardian" who protected Yuna's father… along with Sir Jecht, _Tidus's_ father. So he's not a myth, after all._

I had little time to consider this, however, as Seymour made another appearance. He was carrying a staff, similar to Yuna's, and he rotated it through the air. I watched with interest; despite Wakka's explanation, I still had no clear idea just what a summoner _did._

Just the same, I was completely unprepared for what actually happened: a huge anchor appeared out of nowhere, and a fish-like creature was dragged up out of another nowhere.

I jerked back out of the way as the thing's one visible eye began to emit beams of light, which vaporized fiends on contact. It was completely unlike anything in my experience, surpassing even a Dragon summoning.

It wasn't long before there were no more fiends in the stadium. Once they were gone, the creature, which I now realized to be an aeon, vanished, and Seymour withdrew.

***

Author's note: Now Cassius has made his debut, and the Dragoons have been forced to reveal themselves. Future developments look interesting.

To respond to Reiko5, in the most recent review of the Story of the Diamond Dragoon, the legend mentioned is essentially correct, but it was actually Muramasa, supposedly a pupil of Masamune, not Murasame. This confirms that it is mere legend, of course; more than a century separated the two swordsmiths. Still, the legends surrounding the ancient swordsmiths and swordsmen of Japan are quite fascinating.

I don't believe there is anything else to mention here, so just read it and let me know what you think. ~Solid Shark


	5. Chapter 5: When Vampires Attack

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, Cassius, and Hideo Suzuki

***

The day after the blitzball tournament was attacked by fiends, we waited at Luca's gate for Auron and Tidus to join us. My fellow Dragoons and I were getting odd looks from Yuna's party, but they had agreed to wait on an explanation until Tidus and Auron returned.

When the arrived, Auron turned to Yuna. "I wish to offer my services as a guardian."

Wakka jerked back. "What?"

"You decline?"

Yuna hastily shook her head. "No, no, we accept. But… why?"

"I promised Braska. And…" he added, grabbing Tidus' arm and pushing him forward, "he comes, too."

I bowed to Auron. "I am honored to meet you, Sir Auron." I turned to the others. "I suppose you want to know what happened yesterday."

"Yeah. What was that, yah?" Wakka demanded.

Karen raised a hand. "No, please. Don't get him into lecture mode. He'll never stop talking if you do."

I glared at her. "We are the Dragon Knights, the Dragoons. And, hard as it may be to believe, we are not of this world." I paused, letting that sink in, then continued as the stared. "Rose is from the world of Endiness, and my siblings and I are from a planet called Earth. As for the Dragoons, well, that's a somewhat longer story." I idly pulled out my pipe and lit it. "Eleven thousand years ago, in Endiness, the Winglies ruled all other species. Their domination was challenged, however, by humans, led by Emperor Diaz. And Diaz's army was lead by seven incarnations of Dragons, the Dragoons. They each represented an element: fire, wind, water, light, darkness, earth, and thunder. There were also four non-elemental Dragons, but they were only killed in modern times. Anyway, after a struggle literally of epic proportions, humans won their freedom."

"And that was the end of it?" Tidus asked.

I smiled slightly. "Not exactly. Fate had something else in store, for the so-called 'deity' Soa, who some in Endiness believe to have created the world, also created the God of Destruction. The Winglies had already known of this, and took steps to prevent its birth. They separated the soul from the body, but, unfortunately, the container of the soul was destroyed in the final battle of the Dragon Campaign. Thus the soul was let loose, and became the Moon Child, possessing human bodies and attempting to return to its body. Fortunately, one Dragoon found out about it, and became the Black Monster, hunting down the Moon Child every one hundred and eight years, until six years ago."

"What happened six years ago?" Yuna asked.

"It seemed that the Black Monster had missed the Moon Child eighteen years before, and things all came to a head. To make a long story short, the seven Dragoon Spirits were taken up once more, with three additions, and the God of Destruction was finally destroyed in a titanic battle against the former ruler of the Winglies, Melbu Frahma." I stared into the smoke from my pipe. "I nearly died there."

"That's not possible, yah?" Wakka shook his head. "You expect us to believe you're from another world?"

I scowled at him. "That's exactly what I expect you to believe. And I should think you'd be less skeptical, since yesterday you saw us grow wings and fly!"

"So what are you doing here?" Lulu asked.

"Well, it just so happens that we're on a mission. King Albert, a close friend of mine and the Dragoon of the Jade Dragon, sent us to investigate this world, and try and put a stop to Sin."

Wakka scoffed. "Hah! I told you, only repentance will get rid of Sin, yah? One day, a summoner will finally defeat Sin, but nothin' else is gonna do it."

I looked at him with contempt. "And I suppose you were told that by those idiot leaders of 'Yevon'? At least the practitioners of Tiberoa's star worship or the worshippers of Soa have brains." Before he could explode, I continued. "Believe me, Wakka, this world has seen nothing like the Dragoons. If it hadn't been on our side, we'd have chopped up that aeon of Seymour's in seconds. I don't imagine Sin will be any match for the warriors who defeated the God of Destruction itself."

Wakka finally managed to say something coherent. "But you're talking about defying Yevon! You can't do that, yah!?"

I snorted. "We've defied deities before. This won't be any different." I turned to Yuna. "Anyway, that's why we're here. May we accompany you? We seem to be heading in the same direction anyway, and we could be of some help."

"If my guardian's have no objections…" she paused, glancing at Wakka. "Aside from, Wakka, of course."

"If Yuna wishes it," was Auron's quiet reply.

"The more along, the safer Yuna is, right?" That seemed to be Tidus' primary concern.

"I still don't like it," Wakka muttered. So much for his initial friendliness. "But I guess I'm outvoted, yah?"

"Then it's settled," Lulu said. "And we should probably leave soon."

***

The gate of Luca led directly to the Mi'ihen Highroad, the first step towards our next destination, the Djose Temple. It was a fairly quiet place, for a highly-frequented road, but it still that the enormous monster population that I'd come to expect on Spira. Unfortunately for us, fiends weren't the only nasty denizens of the Highroad.

I was talking quietly with Rose when Karen suddenly shouted. "Vampires! _Vampires!"_

I spun around. There was a veritable hoard of them, apparently lead by a cloak-covered vampire in the rear. Where they had come from, I didn't know, but I did realize that my group would be the only ones capable of dealing with them. Even if Yuna and her guardians had had any idea what they were dealing with, I doubted they had silver or garlic with them.

"Ian!" Ryan shouted. "I think that's Suzuki leading them!"

He was right. When I concentrated, I recognized his aura. It had taken six years, but Hideo Suzuki had finally returned to try and make my life miserable.

Emphasis on _try._

It was time to stop hiding our advanced technology; I flung my coat aside, then drew my Ingram Model 11 machine pistol from its holster and opened fire. It was loaded with silver hollowed points filled garlic; if the allergy to silver didn't get them, the garlic would send them into anaphylactic shock. Either way, anything I hit would die, and I rarely missed.

Above the sounds of battle, I heard Wakka's indignant shout. "That's forbidden machina!"

I spared enough attention from the battle to pistol whip him, then reloaded and resumed firing. There had to be at least a hundred vampires coming at us.

Karen swept by, spinning her katana, Buke-Kontan, through the air, cutting a swath through the menace, while Ryan calmly fought off those near him with Soul Cleaver. Yuna's group, with the exception of Auron, were clearly confused, unable to decide what to do.

_Amateurs,_ I snarled to myself. _If we weren't around, the vampires would turn them into mincemeat._ Lacking time to reload again, I holstered the Ingram and drew Raiden-Ken. "Crush Dance!" I shouted, using an attack I'd learned from Dart, the Red-Eye Dragoon. _"Blazing Dynamo!"_

I missed one, who got past and tried to attack Yuna. But Rose was there. The beautiful warrior struck the foul creature numerous times with her rapier. "Die! Demon's Dance!"

The sight distracted me a moment too long, and I felt a weight land on my back. "I told you I'd be back, Takahari," Suzuki said. "Still think it was worth the risk?"

Before he could say anything more, there was an incredibly loud _boom,_ and Hideo Suzuki flew away from me, disintegrating.

Suzuki's abrupt departure from the mortal plane knocked me off my feet, and I hit the ground, hard. I turned to see what had happened, and there was Ryan, hold a smoking revolver in both hands, barrel pointed to the sky thanks to the recoil. "Ryan?" I asked weakly. "What the bloody blazes was that?"

He grinned. "Ruger Super Blackhawk, loaded with .44 Magnum silver hollow points. Seemed the right time for it."

Rose helped me to my feet and put her arms around me. "Are you all right?"

I returned the embrace. "Yes, my love. Just a little shell-shocked. Next time, Ryan, you might consider firing that thing from a little farther away from my ear, okay? I know you can't put a suppressor on a revolver, but you could at least _try_ not to break my ear drums when you use it." Ryan just grinned.

Wakka stalked over to us, rubbing what was promising to be a _very_ painful bump on the head. "What do you think you're doin', using forbidden machina!? You're defying Yevon!"

Keeping one arm around Rose, I turned and glared at him. "I've had enough of your true-believer claptrap, Wakka. First of all, I don't believe in this 'Yevon', so I don't think I'm bound by his restrictions. Second, it was use them or _die._ In fact, if we hadn't stopped them, it would have been a fate _worse_ than death. You think we should have accepted being turned into _vampires?"_

"What were they?" Tidus interjected. "They _looked_ like people…"

"They weren't," I said grimly. "I neglected to mention my primary occupation. As one of the last surviving Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi ninja and the founder of the Oukoku Fukei, I am a vampire hunter. So are Ryan, Karen, and Rose, though the Black Monster, as she was once known, has more experience hunting Winglies and deranged 'gods' than vampires. As for what they are, they're bloodsuckers. They have to drink blood to survive, because _their_ blood can't support a hemoglobin."

"Hemoglobin?" Tidus asked, frowning at the unfamiliar word.

"You wouldn't understand; our medical technology is also far in advance of your own. Anyway, what's worse is that anyone who is bitten by a vampire becomes one himself. Originally, this problem was limited, because sunlight killed them, meaning that they could only go abroad at night. Unfortunately, vampirism is a virus, and viruses mutate. Around the time my clan began to hunt vampires, the virus had changed sufficiently to give immunity to sunlight."

Yuna gasped. "And now they're in Spira!?"

I nodded grimly. "Yeah. I can see that unless we wipe them out on the journey, I'm going to have to send some apprentices here to deal with them. It is my sworn duty to protect people from their kind. There are certain exceptions; in Endiness there's one coven that feeds off animal blood; drinking the blood of sentient people is a capital offense among them, and the sentence is carried out immediately. The only exceptions to that are those who, for some odd reason, _want_ to become vampires."

Wakka shook his head. "This is great. You guys come here, disparage Yevon, _defy_ Yevon, and now you bring a problem like this _with_ you!?"

"Hey, you can't blame us 'infidels' for _everything,_ Wakka," Karen said. "In fact, true-believer religious fanatics have caused more problems over time than almost any group. Look at the Spanish Inquisition back home. They were responsible for some of the worst atrocities of all time, all 'in the name of God'. Now, certainly the majority of people who believe in that faith are the most decent people you'll meet, but the fanatics simply cannot be reasoned with. When you're dealing with someone who _knows_ God is on his side, the only way to stop him is to kill him."

Wakka's face turned an interesting shade of purple. "You saying we're all fanatics!?"

I sighed and shook my head. "No, Wakka, what she's saying is that the 'true-believers' in Yevon can cause a great deal of damage, not that _all_ believers in Yevon are fanatics. Now kindly be quiet so we can recover from this little battle and get back on our journey."

***

Not long after that, we ran into a young woman who as arguing with a Crusader. The Crusader said something sharp, then walked off, while the girl stood, looking confused. "They won't even listen to me," she murmured.

Yuna walked over to her. "Is there a problem?"

The girl looked up. "Lady Summoner! I am Shelinda."

"My name is Yuna. What's the matter?"

"The Crusaders are going to use forbidden machina on Sin!" Shelinda said. "But that's the against the teachings!"

"Let them use whatever they want," Auron said. "They still won't defeat Sin."

Shelinda turned to him. "Defeating Sin isn't the point! The teachings must be upheld!"

"Yeah! That's right!" Wakka agreed.

"Do your best, Shelinda," Yuna said. "Perhaps you'll yet convince the Crusaders."

Shelinda nodded. "You're right! Thank you, Lady Yuna." She continued on her way.

"Sir Auron's right," Wakka said. "They'll never defeat Sin with machina! You'll see."

"Wakka, you're not impressing anybody," I heard Ryan mutter. "You'd better shut up before you get hurt." From under his coat came a pair of ominous clicks, the distinctive sounds of a revolver's hammer being pulled back and then slowly lowered.

This concerned me. Ryan took very few things seriously. As a ninja, you had to find ways to cope with the killing or you went mad, or became a psychopath. Ryan coped with gallows humor, and Karen with sheer exuberance. I managed by keeping in mind the fact that, with one exception, every person I had ever killed had deserved it.

That one exception was a painful one: the former fiancé of the woman I loved. Zieg had been possessed by Melbu Frahma, former leader of the Winglies. Unfortunately, we didn't discover this until just after I beheaded him. It was thus with great satisfaction that I, with the help of Rose, finally killed Frahma, just hours later.

***

The trip was uneventful for the rest of the day, until we reached the local equivalent of an inn. "We rest here." Auron said.

"But that place is run by an Al Bhed!" Wakka protested.

"So?"

"They don't believe in Yevon! And they, they kidnapped Yuna!"

Auron turned. "Where were her guardians?"

Said guardians (with the exception of Tidus since he hadn't yet been one at the time) looked abashed. "Then let's go."

"I'm not tired _one bit."_ Wakka said stubbornly.

"Well, _I am."_ Auron replied, and that ended the discussion.

***

Author's note: Sorry this one took so long; had some word processor problems. The next chapter shouldn't take as long.

In response to Seriyu-the-ice-dragon, Cassius's appearance without passing through Endiness will be explained in a later chapter. Besides which, I haven't thought of it yet.

To respond to Ye Say Ye Fool, they used Dragoon Spirits for the same reason they would have failed without Anima: _they_ would easily have survived without them, but innocents would have been killed before they could kill anywhere near enough fiends.

In response to Songwind: I don't see why Dragoon magic _wouldn't_ work in another world. The laws of physics are theoretically the same, no matter where you are in the universe.

To respond to Sword Master Jeff, I don't understand Tidus's status either, but later chapters will put a different spin on things.

That should about cover things. Thanks for the reviews, and please keep them coming. ~Solid Shark


	6. Chapter 6: When Vampires Attack, Part II

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Cassius   


***   


The morning after the vampire attack, we left the travel agency and continued on toward Mushroom Rock Road, which would take us to the final leg of the journey to Djose Temple. 

I glanced at Tidus as we set out; from the looks of things, something had gone on between him and Yuna the night before, after I'd gone to sleep. 

"So how are things with the Lady Summoner?" I asked him with a smile. 

Tidus apparently realized what I was getting at. "Hey, it's not like that. I'm just her guardian!" 

I chuckled. "Just a companion traveling on the same road, huh? That's how it always starts. Take it from an old hand at the adventuring business: it's not time that forges relationships, but trial. Battles forge friendships and other relationships better than almost anything else. Remember that." 

"Yeah, whatever." He changed the subject; he probably had the usual teenager feeling that said anybody older than twenty knew about as much as a turkey. "Guess you've got Wakka annoyed." 

I shrugged. "Not my fault he's a true-believer type. I just happen to believe in a different deity, and while I normally respect other religions, there are times when I run across beliefs that have more holes in them than Swiss cheese. Naturally, no faith can be _proven_ to be true, but this idea of 'Yevon'? Sorry, but I just can't accept that a 'god' would continue to punish the children for the sins of the fathers a thousand years later. Sin exists, certainly; I can't deny it, having fought it. But it's not here to punish people for using machinery; if it was, I dare say there'd be an equivalent on my homeworld, Earth, because we use machines all the time. I estimate at least a couple of billion people would die if we lost our technology, for the simple reason that we couldn't make enough food." 

"I guess you're right," Tidus said. "I'll talk to Wakka, maybe at least get him to stop ranting at you." 

I waved a hand in dismissal. "Go ahead, but it doesn't really bother me. I've always enjoyed a good debate." 

I wandered away, back to my own group. We were traveling together, yet still somewhat separate. Given the tensions with Wakka and a few other problems, it was inevitable. 

Rose raised an eyebrow when I got close. "'A companion traveling on the same road'?" 

I grinned. "Yeah, I know. The same thing Dart said six years ago." I hadn't been present for it, but Rose had told me about it, a couple of years later. "It's true, though. Mark my words: those two are going to realize eventually what they feel for each other." 

Rose smiled. "No matter how much they refuse to admit it to themselves." 

I put an arm around her. "Yeah. It always comes out in the end."   


***   


We were stymied when we reached the start of the Mushroom Rock Road; it was guarded by Crusaders, who refused to let anyone pass. A summoner was standing in front of them arguing. "You _dare_ to impeded a summoner's pilgrimage?" the woman demanded. 

"Sorry, ma'am, no exceptions." 

_That'll be Dona, the rude one Ryan mentioned, with Barthello. I guess she still hasn't learned any manners. Figures._

Dona sighed. "Come on, Barthello. Since these upstarts have seen fit to impede our passage, we'll just have to find another way." They left. 

"So now what?" Tidus asked. 

"Now I try my powers of persuasion," I said. "A little something called aggressive negotiating." I sauntered over to the Crusaders. "Okay, fellas, one question: what the blazes gave you the idea that you could block the road on a whim?" 

One of them stiffened. "It's not on a whim. Things are going to get dangerous here, and soon. We cannot in good conscience permit civilians to risk themselves." 

I bared my teeth in what might be charitably described as a smile. "That's not your decision to make, buddy. And besides," and I drew Raiden-Ken, "I think we can take care of ourselves." Using a _kuji_ sequence, I teleported behind him, and then back so quickly there briefly seemed to be two of me. 

The guy had courage, at least. "I'm sorry, sir. No exceptions." 

I felt the presence of someone else. "Is there a problem?" 

_Seymour. That figures._

"We need to pass here to continue my pilgrimage," Yuna replied. She seemed in awe of the maester. "But they won't let us through." 

"I see." Seymour turned to the Crusaders. "Please allow Summoner Yuna and her party to pass." 

"But, Maester-" 

"I'll take responsibility." 

"Very well." The Crusaders stepped aside. 

On his way by, Seymour turned to me. "You would be the warriors who lent aid in Luca?" 

I nodded. "That's us. I'm Ian Takahari. These are my siblings, Ryan and Karen, and this is Rose." 

"I see. That was impressive, what you did back there." 

"We all have our talents." _And I have no intention of giving you the full story, Seymour. Something about you doesn't smell right._

"Indeed." Seymour smiled. "Perhaps we will meet again." 

"Perhaps. But I hope not," I added to myself in a low tone after he'd left. 

I was somehow not surprised when Wakka walked over. "Hey, why didn't you tell him all of it? He's a maester, he's supposed to know when things like that show up in Spira!" 

"Wakka, shut up," I said tiredly. "I don't trust him, and I don't like him, and besides which, as I said in Luca, I am answerable to only one man: His Majesty Albert, King of Serdio and the Jade Dragoon. I do not acknowledge the authority of anyone else." 

He tried another tack. "What about the leader of your clan, yah? Don't you take his orders?" 

"Actually, no, he doesn't," Ryan said from behind me. "In case it slipped your notice, Ian _is_ the leader of the clan. _He_ gives the orders. And the rest of us obey, even if it means dying." 

"Then I'm gonna have to tell Seymour myself," Wakka said, and started to walk off. 

"I wouldn't," Rose said, voice cold. "You would be jeopardizing our mission, and Ian's orders from Albert did clear him to kill if necessary, in order to protect and complete the mission." 

Karen nodded agreement. "Don't get him angry. People tend to get _killed_ when my brother gets angry. Sometime remind me to tell you about Count Draco von Schneider, and how he came to a very bad end after he made a pest of himself by going after Ian about a dozen times." 

Wakka stopped in his tracks. "Uh, how bad was it?" Curiosity and fear had temporarily gotten his attention. 

"A friend by the name of Lloyd cut off his head, and I stabbed him through the heart," I said offhandedly. "So, yeah, people who anger me tend not to live to tell about it." 

"What about that guy on the way to Luca?" Wakka countered. "He's still alive, isn't he?" 

_Yes, what _about_ me, Takahari?_ asked a voice in my head. _Don't be so surprised, vampire hunter,_ the voice added. _You've been bitten; that gives me a connection to you._

"Shut up, Cassius," I muttered, then turned my attention back to Wakka. "So you saw that little altercation, did you? Well, Cassius is a special case. For one thing, he's about two thousand years older than I am. That makes him one of the ancient vampires, the most powerful all breeds. I am quite possibly the only person ever to survive one of his attacks. Or at least, without quite becoming a vampire myself." 

"So you're scared of him, yah? And here you're supposed to hunt 'em." 

I gazed at him coldly. "If you're not afraid of him, then you aren't very bright." I turned away and resumed walking. 

_You're right about that, Takahari,_ Cassius said in my mind. _And you should be very afraid indeed, for we will soon meet again. Prepare yourself._

At this, I turned my thoughts inward, attempting to close my mind to Cassius, building a mental lock against him. _Get out of my mind, Cassius!_ With an almost physical effort, I cast the invading presence out of my consciousness, though I knew it wouldn't last long. 

Rose caught me as I collapsed. "Ian, what happened?" 

I glanced up. "It's Cassius. He's found a way to send me more than just dreams. I've locked him out of my mind for now, but I don't think it'll last." I paused, thinking. "The bastard... he's just trying to scare me, but it's working anyway. He's using his victories over me as a tool, and it's working." 

"Think, Ian. When was the last time you fought him on more or less even terms?" 

I thought for a moment. "Ten years ago, when we first met. I didn't see him again for years, and then he got the drop on me." 

Rose laid a hand on my shoulder. "So you've had ten years to improve your own skills. And this time, you won't be alone. You never have to fight alone anymore." 

"I know. Thanks, Rose." I stood straight. "Come on, let's go."   


***   


We made our way quietly, more or less, until reaching the first evidence of the upcoming Operation Mi'ihen: what appeared to be primitive cannons, pointing out to sea. Wakka strode over to them and kicked one. 

It hurt his foot more than the machina. "What's his problem?" Tidus asked. 

"His brother, Chappu," Lulu replied. "He left the sword Wakka gave him behind, and fought with an Al Bhed machina weapon, instead." 

_That would explain Wakka's virulent hatred of our guns,_ I thought. _A reaction to his brothers death._

Wakka had apparently overheard the exchange. "That's got nothing to do with it! I just hate these sacrilegious contraptions!" 

_Yeah, right, Wakka. You may even believe it, but that doesn't make it true._

From there, we headed on to the Command Post, where a Crusader I recognized, Gatta, was standing guard. He seemed displeased with something. "Is something wrong?" Tidus asked him. 

"Of course something's wrong!" he replied forcefully. "I joined the Crusaders to fight Sin, not stand guard here!" 

I smiled slightly. "'Stay in the rear and count the gear'?" 

"If you want to prove yourself," Auron began, "first you must complete the tasks that are given you." 

Gatta didn't reply; he simply waved us through. 

In the Command Post itself, we encountered another maester, by the name of Kinoc, who greeted Auron warmly. "Auron! It's been ten years, hasn't it? I'd heard from Seymour, but I didn't know if we'd actually meet. Where have you been all this time?" 

"Fulfilling a promise to a friend," Auron replied, and began to walk away. 

Kinoc stopped him. "Just tell me one thing: have you seen Zanarkand?" Auron simply grunted and moved on. 

_I think I'm going to get along with this guy just fine,_ I thought. _But I can't understand why this operation is being lead by a pair of maesters. I mean, not only are they using machina, which goes against "Yevon's teachings", but they're also working with Al Bhed, and _they_ seem to be Yevon's equivalent of the anti-Christ._ I shook my head. _Something about this doesn't smell right._

The Sinspawn they were using as bait didn't help; it seemed to me to be an invitation for massacre. If Sin really did come back after its spawn, we were in for a lot of trouble.   


***   


I was correct, but not in quite the way I expected. Once the operation began, the bait decided its handlers would make a better meal than what they had been feeding it, and attacked. 

"Let's go!" Tidus ran into the battle, followed by Yuna and the rest of her guardians. Obviously the leader type. 

I motioned to my group. "Come one, let's kill that thing!" 

While Rose, Karen, and Ryan moved in, a dark shaped swooped in on me. "You're going nowhere, Takahari!" 

I sprang out of the way, drawing Raiden-Ken in the same motion. "Cassius! You kakushigo!" 

"Yes, me, Takahari. And this time, you're friends aren't around to help you. They're busy, and right now they wouldn't see us even if they looked. Isn't magic wonderful?" Cassius drew his gladius, smiling. "Shall we begin?" 

__

When the clash of swords echo... 

"Alright. Come on." Now that I was face-to-face with him again, I felt a strange calm. Whatever happened, happened; all that mattered right now was my skill with the blade. 

I made the first strike, only peripherally aware of the greater conflict around me as my blade flashed in a horizontal arc at the vampire. 

Cassius blocked; I pulled back, cocked my wrist, and swept Raiden-Ken in a vicious backhand slash, lower-left to upper-right, then spun around in a portion of the Shun Goku Satsu attack. 

My awareness narrowed to the small space in which we fought, my attention entirely upon our clashing swords. For some reason I did not quite understand, I was faring much better in this battle than the previous. At sea, Cassius had quickly disarmed me; here, it was all he could do to block strikes without losing _his_ weapon. 

He was finally back on the offensive. I ducked an attack aimed at my neck, parried a disemboweling cut, and backflipped over a knee slice. 

"You've improved greatly," Cassius said. "But you're not invulnerable." He slipped an attack passed my guard, and I grunted in pain as he laid open my cheek. "Check." 

"What do you think this is, a chess game?" I growled through clenched teeth. With all my strength, I slashed upwards, locking his blade against mine. 

"Not too far from the truth," the vampire replied. "Chess is but war without the bloodshed, after all." With an abrupt twist of his wrist, Cassius' blade broke free of the clash, while my own katana went sailing away. "Not what are you going to do, Takahari? You've lost your weapon, and with it, any hope of defeating me." 

I managed a tight grin. "Don't be so sure." Gathering my strength, I charged at him. 

Cassius didn't at first realize just what I was doing; suicidal attacks tend to have that effect. When he did, his eyes widened. "No-" 

"Sayonara!" I slammed into him, carrying us both off the cliff, while Cassius' fangs neared my throat...   


***   


Author's note: Now _that_ is the fight seen I've always wanted to write. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible, so you shouldn't have to wait too long to find out what happens to Ian and his nemesis.

To answer WildfireDreams, the vaccine was designed to be used only on those who are fully vampire. It wouldn't work on Ian.

That should about cover things. Thanks for the reviews, and let me know what you think of this. ~Solid Shark 


	7. Chapter 7: The Calm Before the Storm

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Cassius   


***   


Falling off a cliff is a wonderful way to focus your thoughts. 

This I discovered as I hurtled toward the beach, over a hundred feet below, while locked in mortal combat with my mortal enemy, Cassius. What made things worse was that my sword was nowhere within reach, while Cassius' fangs were inching toward my throat. If I didn't act fast, I was vampire meat. 

I wrenched myself out of his grip, just in time for a katana to hurtle out of the sky and into the old bloodsucker's throat. Then, still in freefall, I yanked the sword out, discovering that, however it had come to be there, it was the blade Cassius had deprived me of only a minute previously, Raiden-Ken. 

I didn't hold onto it very long; even a hundred feet goes by quickly when you obey the call of gravity. I was smacked in the face by the unyielding ground, breaking my nose and splitting my lip in the process. 

When I tried to stand, it quickly became evident that I'd also broken a leg and several bones in my right foot. Even with my vampiric healing, I'd be out of the fight for far too long. 

Cassius had fared better; he was still on his feet, with the throat wound rapidly healing. He walked over to me, gladius in one hand. "Well, well, well... the last great vampire hunter of the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi, reduced to such a state. There's no doubt that you were an excellent fighter, Takahari-san, but it appears that even you cannot defy gravity." 

I spat out a broken tooth and glared up at him. "You... bastard..." 

He smiled agreeably. "Perhaps. But the fact remains that you're out of tricks, Takahari. You can't get up, your sword is too far from you, and I doubt that you can move sufficiently to draw you pistol. Now, shall you give up now, and end this, or would you prefer I wounded you even more and let you go for now?" 

I managed a tight smile. "I regenerate almost as fast as you do, Cassius. It would be foolish for you to simply leave me." 

"Ah, but I didn't mean physically. I know something that will hurt you a great deal more." 

A pit of ice began to form in my gut. "What do you mean?" 

Cassius' smile became a grin. "You've always known that it was a prophecy that alerted Emperor Doel of Sandora to the threat you posed, but haven't you ever wondered just how he knew to send his men against you and your family, specifically?" 

The pit became an abyss. "No... you-" 

"Yes. It was I that gave the information to Sandora. It was I that caused the deaths of your family and all else you held dear! All that remains is for me to kill your brother, sister, and girlfriend, and turn you, and my work will be complete! Oh, don't worry," he added, "I'll save you for last, that your torment may last as long as possible." 

__

The journey chasing the past ends, and 

The ice turned to a core of burning rage, and the ring on my right hand began to glow. _"You bastard!"_ As the power of the ring healed my wounds, I lurched to my feet. "You killed my family!? You caused the destruction of everything I had ever known!?" 

Cassius backed off a step, looking uncertain for the first time as I rose. "Impossible," he breathed, and dove for the spot where Raiden-Ken lay. 

It did him no good. The blade lifted from the ground and flew into my grasp. _"Now you're going to die!"_ The air around me began to glow with a dark aura, with a corona of black fire engulfing my sword. 

"Impossible! Not even vampires-" 

"Are telekinetic? Well, I've got news for you, bastard! I am more powerful than human or vampire! I am a Dragoon!" I sprang into the air, drawing on the power of the Dragoon Spirit. For a moment, my vision was obscured as the black flare of power of a rushed transformation engulfed me, lengthening my limbs, giving me wings, and granting me the power of the Dragon. 

Cassius took another step back. "Then the prophecy-" 

"Was true. You made the mistake of believing it to be superstitious nonsense, and now you pay the price!" I drew on the Dragoon Spirit's power, using its non-elemental properties to draw on the Dark Element. "Dark Flare!" 

The vampire weathered the blow, staggering but remaining alive. "Another time, Takahari! But I promise you, I'll be back!" With a flare of his own power, Cassius vanished. 

I collapsed on the ground, exhausted, and by the time my Dragoon armor faded, I was already asleep.   


***   


I had no idea how much time had passed when Rose awakened me. "Ian? Are you all right?" 

I glanced up groggily, trying to focus my eye. "Rose? I'm fine now. Just tired." I started to push to my feet. 

She held me down. "Wait. We've got time, and you need to rest. It's not like Kadessa, so you're staying here." 

I grinned tiredly. "Guess I'm in condition to argue." I remembered well the incident she referred to. Six years before, during the Second Dragon Campaign, I had been temporarily killed by a Super Virage and only the presence of a White-Silver Dragoon had prevented it from being permanent. Our leader, Dart, made one mistake then: he tried to keep me out of the action for a while, and this resulted in Ryan being thrown against a wall when he tried to enforce it. 

Nobody had ever tried that again. 

"So what happened? By the time we got there, you were already out." 

I lost the grin. "That bastard Cassius showed up again. To make a long story short, I was forced to knock him off a cliff. Down at the bottom, he revealed something that made me very angry." I took a deep breath. "Cassius is the one who told Doel where to find me." 

Rose inhaled sharply. "But why? Doesn't he want you alive?" 

"I doubt he told Doel just how dangerous I was; he expected me to survive, but wanted to torment me by having my family killed. He miscalculated a bit, though. Doel took Ryan prisoner, and Karen escaped through a rabbit hole." I frowned. "Never did find out how that happened." 

"I see. So what was that spell? I felt the Darkness." 

I held up my Dragoon Spirit. "As near as I can figure, the non-elemental Dragoon Spirits can draw on all seven elements. It just happened that the Diamond can most easily use Dark. Which reminds me," I added, "my Dragoon Spirit seemed to be resonating with another back there. But I thought all the others were accounted for." 

Rose's eyes narrowed. "A bearer was never found for the Divine Dragoon Spirit. It's possible that after we left, it went to seek a worthy holder on its own." 

"Dragoon Spirits manipulate fate..." I mused. "And the Divine Dragon wasn't the most noble of Dragons. It might have chosen a holder that we wouldn't consider worthy. One that would have reason to hate us..." I trailed off. "No!" 

"What's wrong?" 

"Obutsu! Cassius invaded my mind, and not even vampires are supposed to be able to do that! He's got the Divine Dragoon Spirit!"   


***   


Once I'd recovered enough, I headed out to find Ryan. He was standing guard outside what turned out to be part of Djose Temple. 

He sensed my presence and turned. "Niisan! Glad to see you on your feet. What's up?" 

"Bad news, Brother. Where's Karen?" 

Ryan pointed. "Keeping a sky watch." Sky watch, indeed. She was in Dragoon form, hovering above the temple. 

"Tell her to get down here. Things have taken a turn for the worst." 

Once Karen landed, I explained. "I think Cassius has the Divine Dragoon Spirit," I said. "I don't think he knows how to transform yet, but he has used it for a few magic tricks, including telepathy. It's only a matter of time before we have to fight a Dragoon." 

Karen groaned. "Oh, no. When was the last time we had to fight one of our kind?" 

Rose answered. "Six years ago, when we fought Zieg." She managed to get it out with only a slight catch in her voice to betray how hard she still found the subject. Zieg had been her fiancé, thousands of years before, and she'd had a hard time fighting the man she'd once loved. But Rose hadn't been the one to kill him; that had been left to me, just before Zieg could kill her. 

"And before that, it was Lenus," I said, breaking the awkward silence. "And Doel, and Greham. Not to mention the four Originals that Rose and I freed." That had also been the time I'd killed Hideo Suzuki the first time, when he was a werewolf, not a vampire. 

"So what do we do if he does show up as a Dragoon?" Karen asked. "I remember when we fought the Dragon; the only reasons we were able to take him down at all were the Dragon Block Staff and Lloyd showing up with the Dragon Buster. And the Dragon Block Staff is destroyed..." She paused, seeing my slow grin. "I know that look. Okay, niisan, what do you have up your sleeve this time?" 

"Just this." I opened my pack. "We _do_ have the Dragon Buster. Lloyd had Meru deliver it to me before we left, remember? And since not even my armor can stop a magic blade, I can't imagine that the Divine Dragoon armor can, either." 

With that out of the way, I turned to other topics. "So what's up now? I know we're at Djose Temple, but where are Yuna and her guardians?" 

Ryan jerked his head toward the temple itself. "Going through the Cloister of Trials, to get the Aeon Ixion. We'll be spending the night here, too." 

I snorted. "Figures. Waste a perfectly good night sleeping instead of traveling. Oh, well; I guess we can't expect non-ninja to enjoy the night properly. Or non-Dark Dragoons," I added. Rose had used the night to her advantage many times in her eleven thousand year-long quest to prevent the birth of the God of Destruction by killing the Moon Child every 108 years. Fortunately, that was finally behind her. 

Ryan slapped me on the shoulder. "Speaking of sleep, you should get some yourself, niisan. Most people aren't fit for journeying right after being thrown off a cliff and otherwise maltreated." 

I raised my hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. I'm outnumbered. Just wake me when it's time to leave."   


***   


I actually awoke several hours before it was time to leave, and spent the time polishing, sharpening, and otherwise repairing Raiden-Ken. Originally forged in 1612 A.D. by Tatsumaru Hideoshi, my clan's best swordsmith of all time, as Arashi-Jisan, it had been shattered at the end of the Second Dragon Campaign, and was not reforged until just before I arrived in Spira. It had a history almost as old as the clan, created in the days when we were still the Hitoshirezu Buke. It had passed down through the generations until I received it in 1999 A.D., three years before I came to Endiness. It had gone from the _Stormbringer_ to the "Thunder and Lightning Blade", and had always lived up to the name. It was said that Sensei Tatsumaru had imbued it with the element of thunder, but no one could say for sure. 

It obviously was somewhat magical in nature; when the time came to reunite the shattered pieces, they had melded together almost before I put them under the hammer and into the fire. Now, there was nothing to mark them as having been separate pieces. 

"You alright, Ian?" 

The voice startled me out of my reverie. "Hey, Rose. Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking." I gazed out into the distance. "You know, there are still times when I think I'm just not up to this. Thrust into a battle save the world at seventeen, forced to build a ninja clan from the ground up at eighteen, and now dropped into another world-saving quest at twenty-four. I've seen more combat than some people twice my age. You'd think the powers at Court back in Serdio would have screamed bloody murder over the very idea of sending somebody my age on such an important mission. Instead, they're the ones who wanted me here in the first place." 

Rose sat next to me. "Maybe. But I was only eighteen myself when I began fighting in the Dragon Campaign." 

"Things were a lot more desperate then," I pointed out. "It was humans versus Winglies in a battle for survival, and everyone knew it. Six years ago, nobody even knew anything was going on until it was over. Looks like it'll be the same here, too." I smiled. "Of course, objectively, that's a good thing. Ninja aren't supposed to be famous unless they're safely dead. With any luck, no one will know of this escapade for a few centuries yet. By then, I'll probably have gone through a few identities." 

"No desire for recognition, then? No interest in everyone knowing your name or tourists invading the Shrine?" Rose sounded amused. 

I grinned. "Absolutely not. I don't like tourists, I don't like being well-known, and most of all, I hate reporters. One thing I'd hoped I'd escaped when I reached Endiness was mass media, and then I found that even Serdio has newspapers." 

"Be glad Albert doesn't like them either, then," Rose replied. "A less enlightened king might not have made the Shrine off-limits to ordinary citizens." 

"True enough." I glanced toward the east, noting the sun's position; Spira at least seemed to rotate in the same direction as Earth. "Come on; it's about time to leave." I took her arm. "Wouldn't want them to leave without us, would we?" 

She laughed. "Not with Wakka ready to rant at us given any excuse." 

"Indeed. If he keeps this up, I'm going to _have_ threaten to kill him. Again." We headed off to rejoin the others.   


***   


Author's note: Chapter Seven complete. A bit lacking in the action department, but you can't have all action. 

One thing I should mention: I have a Xenosaga story on the drawing board, a crossover with Highlander. I'd like to know what you think before I post it.

A couple of reviews to respond to. First of all, to answer Sword Master Jeff, to use the Dragoon Spirit at that time would have left Ian vulnerable for crucial seconds, which could have led to his demise. Not even a Dragoon Transformation is instant. To respond to Ye Say Ye Fool, I've actually never heard of the Wheel of Time series. I'm simply a sword nut who goes a little overboard sometimes.

That should cover everything for this chapter. The next one should introduce Rikku. 

As usual, please read and review. ~Solid Shark 


	8. Chapter 8: The Infection Spreads

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Cassius   


***   


When Rose and I arrived at the entrance to the temple, Yuna and her guardians were already there. "Nice to see you up and around," Tidus said. "You weren't in too good shape when we got you here." 

"Thank you for your help back there," Yuna said. "It would have been much more difficult if you hadn't been there." 

I shrugged. "On the behalf of my group, you're welcome. But I didn't have much to do with it. That bloody bastard Cassius always did have a rotten sense of timing. So what did happen, anyway? I know Sin showed up and its spawn went wild, but I didn't see anything after that." 

"When Sin appeared," Yuna began, "the Crusaders and Chocobo Knights began the attack. They held their own at first, but-" 

"Sin killed 'em," Wakka finished. "Except for a few lucky ones, they just vanished." 

"Incinerated," Ryan confirmed as he joined us. "It was like some kind of heat wave. One chocobo, three of the knights, and a handful of Crusaders escaped it. That was when the Al Bhed finally got their big ray gun working. At first it looked like it was going to get through to Sin, and then-" 

"Sin retaliated," Lulu said, picking up the tale. "A part of the same barrier that killed the Crusaders cut through the base of the tower. There were no survivors." 

"And none of Yevon's followers died," Auron cut in abruptly. "Kinoc has what he wanted: the infidels died in a massacre, while the faithful live on. He knew what would happen if Sin was fought in such a manner." He fell silent, having said his piece. 

"I see." That Kinoc had deliberately sacrificed the Crusaders and Al Bhed as a propaganda tool didn't surprise me; from what I could see, none of the maesters were to be trusted. What did surprise me was Auron saying it in the first place. He'd been the guardian of Yuna's father, Braska, so I'd assumed he'd be a true-believer himself, if not on Wakka's level. "Well, anyway, what's our next stop?" 

"Now we travel to the Moonflow, on the way to Guadosalam," Lulu answered. "From there, we will travel through the Thunder Plains, to Macalania." 

"I'm ready when you are. Ryan?" 

"Ready to walk and stalk," Ryan replied. "Killing optional, unless ordered." 

"Cut the comedy." I turned to Karen. "You ready?" 

"Just point me in the right direction and I'll be there first!" She was quite liable to do it, too. The only person I'd ever met with more enthusiasm for the world in general was Meru, and even the Blue-Sea Dragoon wasn't very fond of long walking trips. 

"Hold on for a minute, Karen. At least wait for the rest of us to _start_ moving." I looked at the final member of my group. "Ready, Rose?" 

Rose smiled. "Do you really need to ask?" 

"I guess not." 

Kimahri was silent, as usual, and Yuna seemed to take this as assent. "Then let's go."   


***   


I hid a resigned sigh when, shortly after we left Djose, Wakka fell in next to me. "See, it's just like I told you. Machina are bad news. The only way to get rid of Sin is through repentance, yah?" 

I shook my head. "I suppose I'll never convince you otherwise. I imagine you had something else to say, besides gloating?" 

"Yeah. I don't think you should be traveling with us." Typical, blunt Wakka. Big surprise. "What would've happened if that vampire hadn't gone right for you? What if he'd attacked us?" 

"Then you'd all be vampires yourselves now," I replied evenly. "That's generally the result of a vampire attack, unless they choose to make you into a snack, instead." 

"Like I said, you're just making Yuna's pilgrimage more dangerous! You guys might be helpin' protect her, but you're bringing more problems than you're solving! You're just a bunch of troublemakers who-" 

I turned abruptly, drawing Raiden-Ken in a flash and placing it against his throat, cutting off his rant. "One thing you need to learn, Wakka," I said, in an ice-cold voice. "And that thing is this: _My patience is not without limit._ If you try one more time to pin the blame for your world's troubles on myself, my siblings, or, especially, Rose, _I will kill you._ _Is that clear!?"_

Wakka gave a jerky nod, careful not to cut open his own throat on the razor-sharp katana that lay against it. I held it there a moment longer, then snapped it away and dropped it in its scabbard. "Now get out of my sight." 

As Wakka staggered away, Rose chuckled at my side. "I was wondering when you'd do that. You don't normally tolerate that kind of rant for that long. I expected it days ago." 

I laughed. "True, but I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, since he seems bright enough in other matters. Guess it was hopeless, though." I pulled Rose close and kissed her. "At least now he won't be bugging us so much, love." 

She leaned against me. "There is that." 

It was then that my Dragoon Spirit flared and I felt the surge of power. "Everybody, _down!"_

The world around me seemed to slow then. I'd long known that my reflexes were matched by very few people, even Winglies; it wasn't until I did some research on the subject that I'd discovered why: a combination of chemicals created within the body was responsible for the seeming slowdown people felt under certain circumstances such as sudden shock or fear. In reality, the chemical reaction causes your neural activity to speed up enormously. The slowdown is simply your perception of it. Normally, you didn't retain enough fine motor control to make use of it, and the effect tended to be brief. 

But a few people in a generation could combine speed and control to produce blinding reflexes unmatched by any but another of their kind. And I was one of them. 

It was because of this alone that I was able to hurl myself out of the path of the beam that came out of the sky like a divine spear. By the time I landed in a crouch, my Ingram machine pistol was already in my hand, pointed skyward at the Dragoon who was diving straight at me. 

It was Cassius, of course. He had finally discovered the true nature of what he held, helped, no doubt, by my transformation on the beach. "Well, hello, Takahari. I've been expecting you." 

I glared at him, rolling out of the way as he slammed into the ground. "Cassius," I growled. "I don't suppose this is a social call?" 

He smiled. "No, I'm afraid not. Care for a rematch?" He held his gladius in one hand, while a cannon replaced his left. "Thank you for showing me how to use this little trinket, by the way. I might never have realized its true purpose had you not used one yourself." 

"You're not welcome." With another display of speed, I holstered my gun and swept out Raiden-Ken. "This time there'll be no convenient cliff, buddy. And you've given me the breathing space I need for this!" I drew on the power of my own Dragoon Spirit, summoning the black flare of energy that left me with the Dragon Armor of a Dragon Knight. 

__

The journey to know today begins. 

A moment later, a second Dragoon hovered next to me. Rose, in the armor of the Black-Burst Dragoon. "You don't need to fight him alone this time, Ian." 

"Thanks." I assumed a modified combat stance, focusing entirely on the attack. Defense was not an issue for me; the important thing was to kill him and kill him quickly. Then, taking a deep breath, I launched myself toward Cassius, drawing an intricate _kuji_ pattern in the air with my free hand. "Divine Assault!" 

"Die! Demon's Dance!" Rose's deadliest attack, modified for use midair, and in combination with my own maneuver, knocked the vampire back several feet. 

"This," an unexpected voice cut in, "is for the fallen!" Auron leapt into the fight, with an overhead chop fit to cleave giants in half. 

With Cassius in Dragoon form, it didn't kill him, but it did put a sizable crack in his armor, even causing a piece to break off entirely. "What!? How _dare_ you!?" Cassius hit the ground hard, rolling with the impact. When he stood, it was clear his nose was broken. "So you've got help this time, eh, Takahari?" He gave a weak chuckle. "But it won't be enough to save you. Not from me." 

The world wasn't through surprising me yet that day; the next voice was considerably more surprising than Auron's. "Perhaps this will change your mind, vampire." The cultured voice belonged to man wearing what at first appeared to be anachronistic clothing, a style that looked like it belonged to an age centuries past. 

But I knew this particular gentleman, and couldn't imagine seeing him in anything else. "Alucard! What are you doing here!?" 

"Doing my part to save you from this vermin, it would appear." He carried a broadsword, and wasn't afraid to use it. He faced Cassius unflinchingly. "Still alive, are you? We'll just have to change that." 

If Cassius had been surprised before, when Auron walloped him, he was in shock now, a shock mixed with fury. "You! Half-breed bastard!" He was now literally shaking with anger and hatred. "Why Dracula never killed you himself, I'll never..." 

Alucard shrugged. "A good question; I've tried to kill _him_ before. But perhaps blood truly is thicker than water, and my father could never quite muster the strength to defeat his son in battle. But that's irrelevant, now. Ian," he said, turning, "do you have the Vampire Killer with you?" 

I shook my head. "I'm afraid not; I left it behind when I came here, since I didn't expect to be dealing with a vampire as powerful as Cassius. Besides which, my students and Kenji still have vampires to kill in Endiness. We'll have to get rid of him the old fashioned way." 

Rose was staring at me in surprise, and Ryan was staring at her. I allowed myself a smile of amusement; Ryan had long thought that everything I knew, Rose knew, but more than twenty years of training are hard to overcome, and so I still kept secrets. Alucard was one of them. 

Alucard himself appeared amused at their reactions. "So you never even told them about me, Ian? You haven't changed in the eight years since I last saw you." 

"Neither have you. And what did you expect? Until six years ago, they weren't ready for the knowledge that vampires existed at all, and it simply never became necessary to mention you since." I readied my katana once more. "But perhaps we can save the chat until we've beaten off this monster?" 

"Indeed." Alucard raised his own, heavier weapon. "Prepare to die, vampire." 

But Cassius was already moving, retreating as fast as he could in his injured state. "Not this time, traitor! But I promise you, we'll meet again!" With a pump of his Dragoon wings, he lifted off and shortly disappeared from sight.   


***   


With Cassius gone, things settled down enough for the others to start peppering me with questions. "Who is this guy?" Tidus demanded. 

"Yeah, and why didn't you mention him before, Ian?" Ryan added. 

I raised a hand. "All right, all right, one at a time, okay? Thank you. Anyway, this is Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes." 

Alucard bowed in his courtly fashion. "Call me Alucard. The other name has little meaning to me." 

"Yeah. What he said." I paused, sheathing my blade to gain time to organize my thoughts. "As you no doubt gathered from what Cassius said, Alucard is the half-vampire son of Dracula. His mother was human." 

Ryan frowned. "Wait a minute. If you're really the son of Mathias Cronqvist, why have you helped others destroy him?" 

"Because I realized centuries ago that what my father was spreading was evil," Alucard replied. "I've joined forces with the Belmont clan to stop him before. And you must remember that I'm not all vampire. It gives me a different perspective from my father's." 

It was my turn to frown. "That reminds me. Alucard, back in '01 you told me you were going back into hibernation. What brought you out?" 

He turned to me. "The shift in the balance of power. Ian, when Cassius awoke from the deep sleep he'd fallen into when you dropped a castle on him, he came after you. And when he got close to you, the infection that resides within you began to grow stronger. When he obtained the Dragoon Spirit, it became stronger still. It's spreading further into your system even as we speak, Ian." 

The blood drained from my face. "No..." 

Alucard nodded grimly. "I'm afraid so. Even your serum won't help you." He paused, taking a deep breath. "You have two weeks, a month at the outside, to kill Cassius, or it will be too late."   


***   


Author's note: Guess I didn't get to the Moonflow with this chapter after all. But I felt it was important to further develop the Cassius Crisis. I apologize if Alucard seems at all out of character; the only Castlevania game I've actually played is Lament of Innocence, so I don't know what he was like in the games.

In response to Seriyu-the-ice-dragon, I'd actually forgotten about the whip, and had to find a way to explain its absence here. I hope it seems plausible. To answer Ye Say Ye Fool, I believe I pointed out in an earlier chapter, either in this or in the first story, that, except under certain circumstances, the ring only reacts during death or near-death situations. In answer to dark dragon24, since I'm starting to get feedback on the subject, I am considering adding new Dragoon Spirits. As to Tidus' disappearance, I am aware of it. I haven't beaten the game yet, as I'm essentially using the time until story progress forces me to continue by building up my characters. In any case, I have every intention of changing that plot element. I don't know what Square was thinking with that idea, but I believe it was a mistake.

That should about cover things this time. Thanks for the reviews, and please keep them coming. ~Solid Shark


	9. Chapter 9: End of a Nightmare

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Cassius

-----------------------

It's hard to relax when you know that unless you kill a man within two weeks, you'll have to die. Alucard's revelation was probably the biggest shock I'd ever had.

Within minutes, Ryan was running a test on me using portable lab equipment he'd brought with him from the Shrine's Infirmary. When he looked up, his expression was grim. "I'm sorry, Ian. Alucard's right. The infection will have completely spread through your system in fifteen days. There's nothing we can do besides hope you can kill Cassius in time."

"It has to be you, too, Ian," Alucard said. "You have to strike the killing blow, or else you'll be turned at the moment he dies."

I turned, my face a mask of stone. "What do you mean?"

"It's not an ordinary infection; it's a curse, one which he cast even as the castle collapsed on him. I'd heard that the vampires of old were capable of it, but this is the first case I've seen. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

I nodded. "But it's not over yet. I still have a chance, if I'm strong enough. If I'm not..." I trailed off. "If I'm not, then I'll be the first ninja of my clan forced to commit seppuku in more than five generations."

Ryan glanced at me sharply. "What are you talking about?"

I managed a half-smile. "Before the Clan discovered _kuji,_ Ryan, there were quite a few cases of the hunter becoming the hunted, and in most cases, the ninja committed hara-kiri, or another form of seppuku, rather than allow the virus to spread. When he couldn't, the Clan was forced to hunt him down themselves. That's why there's such a deep-seated hatred for their kind in our bloodline."

For the first time since Alucard made his pronouncement, Rose spoke. "What does hara-kiri entail?"

It was Karen who answered, her face pale and her voice like an automaton. "You cut open your own stomach and let your internals fall out. Self-disembowelment, basically. It was only wide-spread among the honorable members of the Samurai; to ensure you don't dishonor yourself by showing too much pain and weakness, your kaishaku-nin, or 'one who assists', cuts off your head before the pain becomes too great. Usually, your assistant is a close friend or relative."

I distantly heard Tidus running for the nearby bushes; he'd never fought people, and the description had apparently made him ill. Or so I judged from the fact that he was bright green, a color not normally associated with good health.

"This is what awaits me if I fail to kill that bastard in time," I said tonelessly. "A very messy death."

"There's no chance that healing magic would cure you?" Yuna asked.

"No. _Kuji_ works on much the same principles; if magic were truly supernatural, humans wouldn't be able to use it. And I've tried everything I can think of for the past ten years to eradicate it. Even dying didn't do it, and if a White-Silver Dragoon was capable of the feat, I'd have been cured long ago, during the Second Dragon Campaign. I was injured often enough then." I stood. "All we can do for now is continue; Cassius will be back for me sooner or later. Let's go."

Alucard also stood. "I'm not going with you just yet. I'll see if I can find where Cassius is keeping himself; there has to be someplace he's staying in between attacking you. I'll be back as soon as I find it."

I nodded. "All right."

------------------------------------

For a time, we traveled in silence. Rose was a brooding presence at my side; no doubt she was thinking of what had happened to her first love: petrified, then possessed by a murderous dictator, then finally killed, at my hand. What I had waiting for me was potentially worse. Two weeks to save myself, or it was over.

Ordinarily, I would have enjoyed the view that greeted us when we reached the Moonflow, but these were not ordinary times. Instead of relaxing, I tried to look in all directions, watching for Cassius. His attacks came almost daily; perhaps he assumed that the constant pressure would make me weak. If so, he assumed wrong.

"What is this place?" Tidus wondered.

"The Moonflow," Lulu replied. "We must cross this to reach Guadosalam, our next destination. From there we cross the Thunder Plains, to reach Macalania Forest."

"Guadosalam," I heard Ryan mutter. "Home of the Guado, right? I suppose Maester Seymour rules there?"

"That's right," Wakka said. "He might even be there when we get there."

"I hope not," Karen said quietly. "There's something about him that I really don't like."

Ignoring the exchange, Lulu continued her explanation to Tidus. "The view is best at sunset, when the setting sun casts its glow over the river."

"We're not waiting till sunset," Auron said quietly as Tidus opened his mouth to speak. "We should move on. The shoopuf isn't far from here."

Wakka glanced at me, his usual glare tempered by my recent threat to him. "So what are the chances your vampire friend decides to make more trouble there?"

"He's not my friend, as you well know, and the answer to your question is simply 'I don't know'," I replied. "Cassius might take some time to recover, especially after the nasty blow Auron gave him. We can only hope. I may need to kill him soon, but I can't do that in the shape I'm in. I need a break from his attacks, especially now that he's a Dragoon."

As we moved on, Rose finally spoke again. "Are you all right, Ian? You seem to be better than when you first heard Alucard's news."

I sighed. "You can't be terrified all the time; eventually, you just move on. After all I've been through in my life, I tend to assimilate such matters quickly." I paused and turned to face her. "Look, Rose, we don't need to panic yet. I'll beat Cassius. If nothing else, I have the Dragon Buster. It might not suffice to kill him, but it'll hurt him pretty bad if he transforms. It might just weaken him enough for me to get in the deathblow."

After a moment, she nodded. "You're right; I just hope your friend finds Cassius quickly."

"As long as I get a chance to rest for awhile first, I agree."

------------------------------------

Not far from there was what looked somewhat like an Earth or Endiness port. I gathered that this was where the "shoopuf" was, whatever a shoopuf happened to be.

Ryan let out a startled oath in Japanese. _"What under the moon and stars is that!?"_ he added in English.

"That" was a two- or three-story-tall dinosaur-like creature, with a platform on top reminiscent of those used for elephants back home, and a blue, frog-like being on its neck.

"The shoopuf," Auron said quietly. "We'll use it to cross the Moonflow."

"That'll be interesting," Ryan muttered. "I haven't used any living transportation more exotic than a horse since Coolon."

"Let his name be honored," I said softly. "He got us to the Divine Tree, six years ago, even after he was fatally wounded. Remember his sacrifice, Ryan."

"Better this than machina," Wakka sniffed. "You use machina, and Sin kills you, yah? Just look at Operation Mi'ihen."

I heard the distinctive sound of a revolver's cylinder being spun under Ryan's jacket, and he muttered something especially vile in Japanese.

I was actually starting to worry about him; even during the Second Dragon Campaign, Ryan had seldom been without his gallows humor. He laughed in the face of death, and death ran away in fright. Now, it seemed that while he retained the gallows part, the "humor" was gone. If this kept up, someone was going to get hurt.

Probably Wakka.

------------------------------------------------------

After stopping briefly for supplies, we boarded the strange animal known as the shoopuf. It's an experience I'll never forget, if only for its sheer outlandishness. I'd never encountered a creature quite like it, but the ride, at least, was smooth. Few people could have gotten seasick aboard it, for instance.

I paid careful attention to the skies; with Cassius now a Dragoon, I couldn't be sure which way he'd attack from, if at all. He could be a bat, a mist, or simply an apparition, for the vampires of old were the most powerful and eerie. I had to be on my guard.

A ways into the crossing, Wakka glanced over the side, and pointed something out to Tidus. "See that down there? That's the ruins of a city that used to be here. A machina city. It was built over the river. Sank under its own weight, 'bout a thousand years ago. You know why they built it that way?"

"Well," Tidus replied, "it would be kinda handy, having all that water nearby."

Wakka snorted. "Nope, that's not why. They wanted to prove they could defy nature! Sin's our penalty for letting things get out of hand."

Yuna nodded. "A thousand years ago, there was a war, with machina, which threatened all of Spira."

"The weapons became more and more powerful," Lulu agreed. "Until it seemed they would destroy the world."

"But the war did not stop!" Wakka said angrily.

"Then Sin came, and destroyed the machina cities," Lulu finished.

"But you use machina yourselves, don't you?" Tidus asked. "Like in the sphere pool?"

"Yevon decides which machina we may use, and which we may not," she replied.

"What kind of machina 'may we not use', then?" he demanded.

Wakka leaned back. "Remember Operation Mi'ihen? _That_ kind."

I could practically feel the violence Ryan was building up to. His expression didn't change, but his fists clenched, and I could have sworn that smoke was coming from his ears. "Wakka," he said, tightly controlling his voice, "if you actually believe that excrement you're spouting, you're stubborn as a mule, and not very bright besides. Do me a favor, _and shut your stupid, pig-ignorant, bigoted mouth!"_

"That's enough, Ryan!" I snapped. "Control yourself, or take one of those sedatives you no doubt carry in your wonder bag of medical tricks!"

He sagged against the seat back. "Sorry, niisan," he murmured. "I will, of course, comply."

"Good." I accepted his statement, but I had a feeling that wouldn't be the last outburst from him.

Before there could be any further discussion, however, a man wearing goggles leapt out of the water, grabbed Yuna, and dropped back in with lightning speed.

"Al Bhed!" Wakka shouted, and jumped over the side, with Tidus not far behind.

"What the blazes!?" Quickly taking stock of the situation, I dropped my coat and drew Raiden-Ken. "Dragoons, stay here and keep a lookout for more Al Bhed. I'm going in!" Without further ado, I took a swan dive into the river.

_If only I'd brought scuba gear,_ I thought as I descended. _Well, _kuji_ will just have to be enough. Here goes! _Using a _kuji_ technique I'd only performed on a handful of other occasions, my body began to change shape, reforming into that of a great-white shark. The skill of _kuji_ transformation was second only to time-travel in terms of difficulty to master. The first time I'd attempted it, I was seventeen, retrieving Arashi-Jisan from the ocean.

This time, I'd have to hope that a shark's teeth were sharp enough to cut through whatever metal was used in Al Bhed machines, because that was what Yuna was being held in.

It was a strange contraption. Its main body was somewhat like a drum, and it was propelled by a set of propellers. Atop it was some kind of bubble, with Yuna inside. Even if we hadn't seen an Al Bhed grab her, there would have been no doubt it was them.

Tidus and Wakka were already fighting the mechanical monstrosity. "Yuna! We'll save you!" Wakka called through the water.

_Yeah, right, Wakka. Some Guardian you turned out to be, if you can't take the most basic of precautions. Just get out of the way and let a professional take care of it!_

I quickly discovered to my discomfort that _this_ professional wasn't going to do much good in his current state. My shark teeth weren't nearly tough enough to bite through the Al Bhed metal. I'd have to return to my normal form.

I had no choice but to trust the power of the magic ring I wore to prevent me from drowning.

Once my body had resumed its normal shape, I gripped Raiden-Ken in one hand and my Dragoon Spirit in the other. It was time to teach the Al Bhed what folly it was to fight a Dragoon. The exhilarating rush of power drove all thought of death or failure from my mind, and I reached out to the shade of my Vassal Dragon. _Diamond Dragon, I call upon thee in this time of battle to smite this machine and rescue my friend from its clutches!_

There was a dark flicker, and with a roar the Diamond Dragon was summoned back to the land of mortals to turn its wrath upon the pitiful machine before it. The diamond claws ripped at it, and in a moment it was gone.

As Wakka and Tidus helped Yuna back to the surface, the Dragon seemed almost satisfied for a moment, then returned to the grave.

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Things were eerie when we surfaced; there was little sound, and none of the commotion I'd have expected from our companions. It was far, far too quiet.

"What happened here!?" Tidus demanded, as we climbed back aboard the shoopuf. It was a very good question: the other Guardians, and my fellow Dragoons, were all sprawled about the gondola, unconscious. Even the Hypello driver was knocked out.

"I don't like the looks of this..." I muttered. "They're near death. What the blazes happened here?" Kneeling beside Rose, I felt for a pulse, then sighed with relief. She was alive.

"What could have done this?" Yuna asked. "What could overpower everyone?"

"It must have been the Al Bhed!" Wakka snarled. "They had others around, just waitin' to hit 'em while we were in the water!"

I slammed my fist into the floor and cursed vilely. "Not the Al Bhed. Only Cassius could have done this! And I led him right to us when I used my Dragoon Spirit!"

"Quite right, Takahari," Cassius said. "Quite right indeed."

He was hovering in the air next to the shoopuf, in Dragoon form, and before any of us could react, the vampire produced some kind of mist, knocking out my three companions. _"Cassius!"_ I screamed. _"This time you're gonna die, bastard! This is the end!"_ Springing into the air, I transformed, sheathed Raiden-Ken, and drew the Dragon Buster.

"We are in agreement, Takahari," Cassius said, flying away from the shoopuf. "Either you are turned, or I die. I would not have it any other way." He nodded at the Dragon Buster. "But don't you think that's a little unfair?"

"I don't believe in fighting fair, Cassius," I said angrily. "The man who fights fair is the man who loses. Oh, but I forgot; you're not a man, are you? No, you're just a vampire. And before this day is done, I will have claimed your life, as well!"

__

When the clash of swords echo

We sped toward each other, Cassius with his gladius, myself with the one weapon that could be relied upon to get through Dragoon armor. One clean hit was all I needed.

Our blades clashed, and we pushed apart, wings flapping hard to cancel the inertia. "Is that all you've got?" Cassius taunted. "You're no different from when we first met, ten years ago!"

"You're wrong, Cassius," I replied. "I have killed over a hundred people since our first meeting, and several hundred vampires. Do you think that the heir to the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi would be a weakling?"

__

The journey chasing the past ends and

"Perhaps not. All the better! You will be the finest vampire obtained from your clan since Kenji Hideoshi was turned four centuries ago!"

"Shut up!" I snapped. He'd picked the wrong example, if he wanted to demoralize me. Kenji Hideoshi was the grandson of Goro Hideoshi, one of the three founders of my clan. He had been the clan's most respected poet, just as his brother Tatsumaru had been our greatest swordsmith.

__

The journey to know today begins.

Giving up on conversation, Cassius raised his cannon arm. "Divine Dragon Cannon!" he shouted, firing an immense energy beam at me.

I barely dodged, thanking the world in general for my phenomenal reflexes. I decided it was time to respond in kind. "Diamond Cannon!"

__

One soul seeks another and

The beam caught him right in the chest, blasting him backwards. "Urgh!" Cassius slammed into the water with such speed that the impact was equivalent to being smashed into a concrete wall. Only the Dragoon armor he wore kept him from breaking his entire rib cage.

__

Pledges their sworn friendship to another.

After taking a moment to recover, he swept back into the air. "You'll pay for that, Takahari! I'll make you suffer for it!" Cassius flew at me again, aiming his blade at my heart.

I batted it aside with the Dragon Buster. "You nearly killed the woman I love," I snarled though gritted teeth, "and have caused me more misery over the years than anyone else!"

__

One mystery begets the next and

"Then let your misery be complete!" Cassius struck my blade with all his strength, knocking it from my hand. "It ends today, Takahari!"

But to my surprise, he didn't continue his attack on me. Instead, he flew back to the shoopuf, preparing for another cannon blast.

And it was aimed straight at Rose. _"Nooooooo!!"_ I screamed, and collided with him at full speed.

__

The doors of fate are opened.

Raiden-Ken shattered Cassius's gladius, and he was forced out of Dragoon form as he struck the water. He floated there, with an expression of extreme surprise on his face. "How could you have won? A mere human cannot outshine me, a vampire..."

"You sound remarkably like the late Melbu Frahma," I said coldly, "just before I killed him. Except he was a god, not a vampire. Believe me, bastard, you may be the most terrifying enemy I have ever had, but you are not the strongest. It... ends... here." I raised Raiden-Ken, the sword forged from the shards of the great vampire-hunting blade Arashi-Jisan, and it glowed with power. _"Wrath of Heaven!"_

__

You are free to sever the chains of fate that bind you...

The blast of pure white power annihilated Cassius, and the concussion blew me backwards, as well. And then the pain came, overwhelming agony that wracked my body with spasms, until at last I mercifully blacked out...

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Author's note: Well, now you know that The Second Story of the Diamond Dragoon is still alive; I haven't abandoned it. Sorry for the delay, but I've had a world-class case of writer's block. Credit goes to Red-Eyed, Divine Dragoon77415 for curing it.

I won't reveal much, but I'll say right now that the ownership of the Divine Dragoon Spirit will remain undecided for now; it will play a large role in the Third Story of the Diamond Dragoon, though of course I have no idea when that story will be written.

In response to Knightblazer85, I believe you'll find that in Chapter 30 of The Story of the Diamond Dragoon, I _did_ explain that Matthias Cronqvist and Dracula are one and the same. I went back and checked it myself. If memory serves, it was just after the group reassembled in the ersatz Bale.

To reply to dark dragon 24, I actually did know that Tidus returns in FFX-2, but I'm going to complete disregard that for the purposes of this story. I've never played X-2, and I have no intention of doing so. Suffice it to say that I have a very low opinion of it.

That should cover things for this chapter. Read it and let me know if it was worth the wait. -Solid Shark


	10. Chapter 10: The Al Bhed Guardian

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Cassius

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It was a long, hard battle to regain consciousness. My entire body ached, and I tasted blood in my mouth. For some reason, I couldn't quite remember just how I came to be unconscious in the first place.

"I think he's waking up," I heard a familiar voice say, and my relief at hearing it was sufficient that enough fatigue washed away for me to be able to open my eyes at last.

Rose was standing over me, concern in her eyes. My siblings were on either side of me, and the Spirans were toward the other end of the gondola. "Hey, guys," I said, voice weak. "Glad to see you're okay."

"Gave us a bit of a scare, niisan," Ryan said. "I woke up just as you vaporized your vampire friend, and you didn't look too good."

Karen nodded. "Yeah; near as we can tell, the virus actually took over your body briefly. Your canines grew so suddenly they injured your lip-" which explained the blood in my mouth "-and your skin went white. But it only lasted a few seconds; then everything went back to normal. You just didn't wake up."

"I see." With a groan, I managed to stand up, wincing from the pain of sore muscles. "It's about bloody time that miserable wretch bought it. I just wish I could have stopped him earlier."

"Uh, speaking of stopping him, Ian," Ryan said puzzled, "how did you know that attack? The last time I saw Wrath of Heaven was when Father deep-sixed Takagi, in Kumamoto. That must have been ten years ago."

I smiled. "As it happens, _I_ didn't know that I knew, either. But remember that the Clan used hypnosis for training, too; we won't consciously know a given attack until a situation arises that requires it. Apparently Cassius was one situation that required the family's deadliest attack."

Rose couldn't contain herself any longer; she threw her arms around me, holding me tight. "I thought I'd lost you!"

I grinned; she'd come a long way from the dour, expressionless warrior she'd been for eleven millennia. "It'll take more than that to get rid of me, Rose," I said, returning the embrace. "A _lot_ more."

"So, who was this Takagi?" Tidus asked. "Somebody from your world?"

Ryan turned. "Takagi was a sorcerer, adept at _kuji_. He took over an ancient temple near Kumamoto, a town on the island of Kyushu, and started assembling an army with which to take over Japan. Unfortunately for him, our father, Hirotaro Takahari, found out about it before his plans were complete. He led a team of a dozen ninja, including Ian and I, to Takagi's fortress, where we killed the sorcerer's men. Father had a final, climactic duel with Takagi himself on the top floor, and in the end he blew the entire temple to rubble with an explosion of power." He cast a significant look back toward the place where Cassius had met his end. "It was the Wrath of Heaven technique, quite possibly the most powerful sword attack in existence. Only the heir to the Gekido Oni Art is taught the technique; and while Ian here is the heir, I'd thought Father died before it could be passed on."

Glancing up, I smiled. "That tale might sound extraordinary, but it's actually pretty tame compared to some of the exploits in our family history. The Clan has headed off more crises like that in the last few centuries then any other group."

"What about that Suzuki fella, yah?" Wakka broke in. "He was from your clan, wasn't he?"

Seeing Ryan about to explode, I shot him a quelling look, then looked back at Wakka. "We don't talk about him," I said evenly. "He was born Hideo Hideoshi, but we stripped him of that name when he was cast from our number. He took the name Suzuki, and as far as we're concerned, he was no relative of ours. Just another werewolf turned vampire, just like Takagi was."

Running a hand through Rose's hair, I glanced at the Spirans. "Are you okay, Yuna? Last time I saw you, you were a little the worse for wear."

The summoner nodded with a smile. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for your help."

"Happy to oblige." I looked back at Ryan and raised an eyebrow. "So it was definitely the Al Bhed?"

"No mistake," Wakka replied for him. "Those sand-blasted grease-monkeys! They been kidnapping summoners, those-"

Rose and I edged away as Ryan exploded out of his seat, drawing his big revolver. "I've had enough!" He stalked over to Wakka, checking his gun. "We're gonna play a little game, buddy," he said, spinning the cylinder. "It's called Russian Roulette!" He snapped it shut, put the barrel to Wakka's head, and pulled the trigger.

The big, unimaginative man recoiled, eyes wide, and he seemed surprised to realize he wasn't dead. _Doesn't know how to tell a loaded gun from an unloaded one,_ I thought. _Something he'd do well to learn, if he's going to continue ticking off my impetuous twin._

Fury vented, for the time being, Ryan spun around and sat, looking somewhat satisfied. "Next time, you might not be so lucky," he muttered. Once he was settled, I heard the sound of cartridges being slid into the cylinder, but he made no move to use the weapon again.

With a sigh of mixed resignation and relief, I settled into a seat, Rose beside me. "If we make it through this journey without Ryan killing Wakka, I'll be amazed," I murmured to her.

She smiled. "At least your death threat stopped him from going after _you_, love."

"And I meant every word." I gazed thoughtfully at the pale, shaking Guardian. "I don't think he'll be a problem for Ryan anymore, either. Which just leaves..." A thought occurred to me, and I shot a look at my sister. "I wonder what kind of heat she's packing?"

Rose chuckled. "A Colt .45 and a Gyrojet; she showed them to me before we left."

I raised an eyebrow. "You've been doing some research, I see. A few years ago, you wouldn't have known what either of those were. Gotta wonder about that Gyrojet, though; where on Earth did Karen find one of those old things? The hand-held rocket launcher idea never did take off."

With another sigh, I leaned back, able to relax as I hadn't in a decade. The bane of my existence, the vampiric infection Cassius had inflicted upon me, was gone at last, along with the vampire himself. _It's over at last,_ I thought, content for a time. _I don't fear what lies ahead; I've defeated a deity before, so the _minion_ of a deity shouldn't be much of a threat._ I wondered idly what had become of Alucard; Cassius' departure from the mortal plane was undoubtedly sufficient to cause a "shift in the balance of power", as he put it. But it was no more than an idle thought.

Before long, I was sleeping my first truly untroubled sleep in years.

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I awoke quickly after our arrival on the other side of the Moonflow, having recovered from my brush with vampirism. I was also far more relaxed; with Cassius out of the way, I could concentrate on our primary mission: the destruction of Sin.

Ryan, Karen, Rose, and I were the first off the shoopuf, and I turned to my twin. "I think you've shut Wakka up for awhile," I said with a slight smile. "Nice trick. He didn't even realize it was unloaded."

He spun, an agitated look on his face. "Unloaded? _Unloaded!? You think that was unloaded!?_"

"More like unhinged," Karen muttered.

Ryan's tirade was still gaining in power. _"There was a one-in-six chance that would have blown his head clean off! And we'd all have been better off!"_ Glancing around wildly, he took off into the forest ahead of us, his blade swinging in all directions.

I blinked. "I think Ryan's gone off the deep end. I've seen him amused, irreverent, angry, even nervous, but I've never seen him act like a paranoid wild-man before. I think something has actually affected his mind to some extant."

Karen snickered. "Don't worry about him, Ian. You were off an a mission at the time, but two years ago Ryan was just like that. You'd left him in charge of the dojo, there were monsters and disgruntled people attacking, and to top it all off, one of the younger students had just set his pants on fire, apparently to see what would happen. I think the stress gets to him after a while, and this is the result."

The description caused me to burst out laughing. "I never heard about that one! What did he do to the poor student, anyway?"

Rose chuckled. "If memory serves, he stuck the unfortunate apprentice in a pocket of null-time for a week."

"That explains why nobody's tried any practical jokes on him in a while." A thought struck me. "By the way, what happened to the Divine Dragoon Spirit after Cassius bit the dust?"

Karen frowned, then pointed at Tidus. "It went to him, though I don't think he's realized it yet. It hasn't resonated or anything, and he seems to think it's just a jewel. It's almost as if..."

"It's waiting," Rose put it. "The Dragoon Spirit has selected him as one having the potential to be a Dragoon, but until he proves that he can fulfill it, it will do nothing but watch and wait. The Divine Spirit is very particular about its bearer, as evidenced by the fact that it has not yet chosen one."

I nodded slowly. "I see. It has sensed Tidus' convictions, but is waiting to see if he is strong enough to act upon them. Interesting. Very interesting indeed."

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Tidus was the second into the forest, after Ryan, and the rest of my little group wasn't far behind. Despite Karen's glib explanation, I was worried about my twin, so I carried a tranquilizer as a precaution.

Not far in, Tidus stopped abruptly, near an unmoving body on the ground. Cocking his head, he approached cautiously, until the body began to move.

My hand went instinctively to Raiden-Ken's hilt as the figure, who appeared to be a girl of about sixteen, stood, slipped out of some kind of wetsuit, and removed a face mask. "Thought I was done for back there," she said, looking at Tidus.

Tidus started, then blinked in recognition. "Rikku? You're Rikku!?" He grinned. "Hey! How you been?"

"Miserable."

He nodded. "Yeah, you don't look so good. What happened?"

She glared at him. "You beat me up, remember?"

"What? Wait a minute... You were in that machina?"

"That's right!" After a moment, Rikku's glare was replaced with a smile. "But I'll forgive you." She seemed to notice my brother and I for the first time. "Who're you guys?"

"Oh, uh, this is Ian Takahari, and his younger brother Ryan," Tidus said, introducing us. "Guys, this is the Al Bhed who rescued me when I first got to Spira."

"Nice to... meet you..." Rikku said uncertainly, looking first at Ryan, then at me. "Uh, which one of you is which?"

I grinned; the only differences in our appearance, having been born identical twins, was that Ryan looked about a year older (a difference so unnoticeable as to be irrelevant) and the eyepatch over my left eye, courtesy of the Diamond Dragon. "I'm Ian; you can recognize me by the eye. As for my brother..." I jerked my head at him. "I suggest you stay away from him for now; he hasn't had the best of days. Weeks, for that matter." I held out my hand. "By the way, you don't have to worry about machina with _us_; one of our companions is a true-believer in Yevon, and that's resulted in some clashes. I nearly cut off his head, and Ryan almost blew his head clean _off._"

"Nice to meet ya!" Having settled the problem of identification, the girl was bubbling over with enthusiasm. "So, you're more of Yunie's Guardians?"

_"Yunie"? Does she know our favorite Summoner?_ I shook my head. "'Fraid not. My siblings, Rose, and I are on an official mission for our monarch. It just happens that our mission is to destroy Sin." I glanced back at where the other Spirans were; still a good distance away. "No offense to our native friends, but I think we have a rather greater chance of stopping Sin than the Summoners do; six years ago, we literally killed a 'god'. I don't think the servant of a so-called deity will cause us much trouble."

Rikku brightened noticeably at the mention of defeating Sin without the Summoners. "So, you don't want the Summoners to complete the pilgrimage either, huh?"

"Not exactly." I cast a warning look at Ryan; this wasn't something I wanted spoken of in front of Tidus. "We'll talk about it in greater detail later."

"Good idea." She glanced around. "By the way, who's 'Rose'?"

Ryan regained his sanity abruptly, and I felt a sense of dread. The only thing that could have brought him around this quickly was the prospect of causing another person or persons (in this case, no doubt Rose and I) discomfort. "A warrior friend of ours," he said with a lazy grin. "Oh, and Ian's fiancé."

Any irritation I might normally have felt was buried by surprise, and I jerked my head around to stare at him. "How did you know that?"

His grin widened. "Oh, come on, niisan. First of all, you haven't exactly made a secret of your relationship, which made it inevitable; and second, don't you remember that _kuji_ invisibility spell you taught me?"

Furious at his eavesdropping, and his inopportune timing of announcing the fact, I made a quick _kuji_ motion, creating a wall of force that slammed him into a tree.

Rikku's eyes widened, and then she burst out laughing. "You have _got_ to teach me that trick sometime! That was _great_!"

"It comes in handy," I said with a shrug. "Not that difficult to learn, either. You don't have to be a magic user to use _kuji_." I cast a glare at my groggy brother. "But I might wait awhile before teaching you something _that_ advanced. You remind me a great deal of an old friend of mine, by the name of Meru. I have the feeling you two would get along like a house on fire. And that's a _truly_ scary thought."

She grinned. "I'll have to meet her sometime-" She broke off. "Behind you!"

Before she finished her warning, Raiden-Ken was already in my hand, and the razor-sharp katana sliced cleanly through a fiend that had snuck up behind me. "Try to make a snack of _me_ will you? I don't think so." I swept the blade through a cleaning cloth, wiping off the blood, and sheathed it with an air of calculated indifference. "As you can see, young lady, I'm quite capable of taking care of myself. So is my deranged brother, when he's not comatose."

The rest of the group finally caught up with us then. "Who's this?" Wakka asked.

"Uh, this is Rikku. I told you about her, remember? She's the one who rescued me when I first came to Spira. She's an Al Bh-" Tidus cut himself abruptly, just before he could utter the words that would make Wakka distrustful of the girl.

Apparently the brain-dead Guardian didn't catch the slip. "Nice to meet ya, yah?" he said, shaking her hand. "If you hadn't rescued Tidus, we never woulda won the tournament."

I rolled my eyes. _Does this big idiot _ever_ think of anything besides Blitzball? I thought he was done with that for good._

Attempting to create some order in the brewing chaos, I turned to the rest of the group. "Rikku, these two are my sister Karen, and, of course, Rose. The other Guardians are Lulu, Kimahri, and Auron."

Karen immediately walked over to the Al Bhed girl, and a horrifying thought occurred to me. _Oh, no. Karen got along with Meru so well... And Rikku looks to be almost as bad._

I quickly stepped over to my incapacitated sibling, hauled him to his feet, and motioned Rose over. "What is it, niisan?" Ryan asked in a low tone.

Motioning at Rikku and Karen, I grimaced. "Let's make sure that Rikku, Karen, and Meru are never, _ever_ in the same place at the same time, okay?"

Rose winced, and Ryan gulped audibly. "Yeah, Sensei," he agreed. "The consequences of failure do _not_ bear thinking on."

He started to turn away, then paused. "That reminds me, Ian. Something I brought from the dojo that I've been meaning to give you." Ryan reached into his pack, rummaged, and handed an autopistol in a shoulder holster. "It occurred to me that your machine pistol might not be up to the job, so I brought a backup gun."

I examined it carefully, and nodded in agreement. And satisfaction: it was a Heckler & Koch USP Tactical, .45 caliber, with ten-shot magazines. This particular example was outfitted with a laser aiming module, recoil compensator, and sound suppressor (silencer, of course, is a misnomer; the weapon may be quieter, but it is _not_ silent). "You're right," I said after a moment. "This may be useful, indeed, especially if I should have to put my old skills to work. Quieter than the Ingram." Glancing at him, I waved a hand. "Go; we don't want to make anyone suspicious, do we?"

His mind accustomed to paranoia, Ryan obeyed without a second thought. Rose, on the other, raised an eyebrow. "Who do you think would get suspicious?"

"Wakka, of course. You don't think he really wants to see another bit of 'forbidden machina' invading his world, do you?"

Meanwhile, Rikku, Yuna, Lulu, and, ominously, Karen, had turned to the rest of us. "Uh, the four of us need to talk for a minute, okay? We'll be right back."

I groaned, and Wakka looked at me strangely, animosity temporarily forgotten. "What's wrong with that? Somethin' I should know about?"

"It's nothing serious, Wakka," Ryan assured him. "My fearless clan leader is just remembering that a friend of ours, Meru, is a lot like Rikku. And our sister always got along well with _her_. And there is simply no telling how much havoc the two of them can cause together."

His eyes widened; even _Wakka's_ imagination was sufficient to conceptualize the insanity ahead. "Uh-oh."

"What's so bad about that?" Tidus asked. "Maybe you guys just need to lighten up a little."

Rose and Ryan exchanged glances, then edged away from me. They knew _exactly_ the sort of reply I'd make to that.

"Let's see, kid," I said softly, head turning toward him like the turret of a tank. "I began my martial arts training at the age of five. I killed a man at thirteen, became a full ninja at fourteen, faced vampires for the first time at the same age, was _bitten_ by a vampire that year, lost my parents and dropped into a world I hadn't even known existed at seventeen, lost my eye and got caught up in a civil war, fought with a group of unique warriors on a mission to save the world, and you tell me that _I need to lighten up!?_ Would _you_ be very carefree if you'd been through what I've been through in my life!? I've even _died,_ lest you forget!"

"Ah, I guess not," he said after a moment, in a very different tone.

"That's what I thought."

About then, the females walked back to us. "I want Rikku to be my Guardian," Yuna said. "Does anyone object?"

"Well, I'm for it," Wakka said. "The more the merrier."

"Well then, I'll just have to be the merriest!" The girl was practically hopping from foot to foot.

"Just like Meru," I heard Ryan mutter in despair. "We're doomed."

Auron was silent at first. "Look at me," he said finally. When she complied, he added, "Open your eyes." After a moment of study, he nodded to himself with the ghost of a smile. "As I thought." He turned to Yuna. "Shall we resume our journey?"

Once we were on the move once, I frowned, thinking. "Hey, Tidus," I said quietly. "We're going to Guadosalam, right?"

He glanced at me. "Yeah, so?"

"That's where Seymour rules, isn't it?"

"I guess so. Why?"

I sighed. "This just is _not_ my day. Here," I said after a moment, pulling the Ingram from its holster. "Take this. I wouldn't recommend letting your buddy Wakka know you have it, but if things get real bad, it could mean the difference between life and death."

The Blitzball player from Zanarkand took the weapon, puzzled. "How does it work?"

"Just point it at your target and pull the trigger. That's really all you need to know." I started to walk away. "I hope for all our sakes that I'm wrong about what lies ahead. But if I'm not, remember that weapon."

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Author's note: I know, it's been another month since the last update. I've just been busy, especially with another fic going at the same time. The next chapter, though, shouldn't take quite as long.

YSYF, as you can see, that attack was explained in this chapter. As to your other question, let's just say that I have some ideas. Nothing is set in stone as yet, however, since I haven't even completed _this_ fic.

Red Eyed, Divine Dragoon77415, the time is drawing nigh when the Divine Dragoon Spirit will be used. Watch for it in the next chapter or so.

Songwind, I gather from my own writing that Wakka is ignoring the Dragoon Spirits for now. I can't really say if and when that will change, though; I've noticed that after awhile, a story starts to write itself. We'll just have to wait and see.

One more thing: a certain review for my brother's The Third Generation has come to my attention. Now, Dragoon Swordsman can't comment, else he would give this piece of garbage credence, but I have no such limitations. So I put this question to Arreat's Hymn: Exactly what is wrong with you? Dragoon Swordsman is by no means the first author to use a chapter for character bios, and I should point out that he did not post the bios alone; the first true chapter was posted simultaneously. And I also must say that he is a better writer than you are, so there is no point in lending any credence whatsoever to this nonsense. Oh yes, and did you write that review because you had nothing else to do? Because I can't really see your point. You complain, but you don't say exactly what your problem is, so why bother?

That's all the space I'm going to waste on that nonsense, so that should about cover everything. Read it and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark


	11. Chapter 11: City of the Guado

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, and Kenji Okamura

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I kept up my guard as we entered Guadosalam; Maester Seymour Guado hadn't yet tried anything overtly malevolent, but every time I had been in close proximity to him, my trained senses had detected something that I'd felt before, from such adversaries as Emperor Doel (prior to his coming to his senses at the end of his life), Warden Fruegel, and Melbu Frahma.

But what it most resembled was the feel I'd gotten from Zackwell, the demon who had taken over Lavitz's soul in the Death City Mayfil, shortly before I brought him back to the land of the living, and that was bad. Zackwell didn't just want to hurt people; he'd manipulated souls, and if Seymour was anything like that, I had every intention of killing him at the first opportunity.

With my coat somewhere at the bottom of the Moonflow river, thanks to my final duel with Cassius, I'd belted on a black kimono, and my katana was thrust through the sash, rather than its usual place on my back. While shoulder-slung was better for stealth missions (it kept it out of the way), having it at my waist made it easier to reach, with a faster draw. I anticipated that this might be important before long.

Inside the city, we were met by an elderly man, obviously a full Guado (as opposed to Seymour, who was only half). "Lady Yuna, we've been expecting you," he said bowing to our resident summoner. "This way, please."

Surprisingly, it was Wakka who spoke up in protest. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's goin' on here, yah?"

"Oh, my apologies. I am Trommel, Lord Seymour's aide. Lord Seymour wishes to see you, Lady Yuna, and your Guardians." He gestured toward a mansion on one side of the cave town. "If you would follow me, please?"

I stayed put, and gestured for my companions to do the same. "We will remain here, Mr. Trommel. We are not Guardians; merely companions traveling on the same road. To be sure, we aid in the protection of Lady Yuna, but we have other responsibilities, other oaths, that preclude our becoming true Guardians."

The old Guado nodded in apparent understanding. "Very well, then. Feel free to explore our town, while you wait."

I nodded. "Indeed we shall. Good day."

After they had left, Ryan turned to me and raised an eyebrow. "What was that about, niisan? I mean, I know you're not as disrespectful as me-" and he grinned "-but you don't normally act quite so deferentially to someone like that. So what's up?"

"It's simple, Ryan, and if you weren't so impulsive, you'd have figured it out yourself." The barb, of course, bounced clean off my brother's armor of irreverence. With a sigh, I continued. "Look, I don't think Seymour's on the level. You know that. So don't you think it follows that we don't want to be attracting attention to ourselves quite yet? I need to get a good look around before these Guado realize I'm 'up to no good'."

His face cleared of any trace of puzzlement. "Oh, I get it. You're going to lull them into a false sense of security, _then_ kill them all. I see."

Wincing, I raised a hand to my eye. "Noo, Ryan, you _don't_ quite get it, unless you're being facetious, which is better than the alternative. Look, the only Guado I have any intention of killing is Seymour, and that's only if he does something overtly evil. I know he's evil, you know he's evil, but I can't do a thing about it unless _other_ people realize it, too."

Rose nodded in agreement. "He's right, Ryan. You haven't been involved much with missions with political ramifications before, but Ian and I have. It's all about perceptions. Unless you _have_ to squash the target to protect people, you have to wait until he's done something you can _prove_ before you go after him. I'd have thought you would have learned that from your own legal system, on Earth."

To my surprise, Karen appeared to agree as well, despite her hyperactive nature. "Yeah, Ryan, you need to learn a bit more about people, before it's too late."

Ryan, typically, looked unrepentant. "What do I need to know about people? I mean, my job is just to kill them, right?"

I raised my eye to the sky, invisible beyond the rocky ceiling, in despair. "Hopeless. Ryan, you are just hopeless."

Turning away, I left my not-so-people-friendly brother and went to explore the subterranean town called Guadosalam.

-------------------------------------------------------------

It was some time after that when Yuna and her Guardians finally emerged from Seymour's mansion, looking somewhat... odd. Tidus and Yuna in particular looked off-balance.

Concerned, I joined them. "What's up? You look like something weird happened in there."

"Yeah," Tidus said, in a subdued voice. "For one thing, Seymour showed us a sphere reconstruction of Zanarkand. It looked just like what I remembered..."

"That's not all," Rikku broke in. "He... he asked Yunie to marry him!"

I blinked. _What the devil is up with this? Seymour and Yuna? Doesn't seem like the sort of match one would expect... Of course, Rose and I aren't exactly the most usual pair, either, but still... I'd have thought it would be Tidus, if anyone._

Ryan and I exchanged looks, and I shrugged. It wasn't our business. "So where to next?"

"I'm going to the Farplane," Yuna replied, "to consult with my father."

I cocked my head, puzzled, but let it pass without question. Whatever it was, I'd likely find out soon enough. "I see." I glanced at my companions. "Well, we're ready if you guys are."

As we headed toward the surreal place known as the Farplane, Tidus walked over to me. "Something else that guy said that bothers me," he said quietly. "He asked Auron what he was doing here, then said something about Guado being 'keen to the scent of the Farplane', or something like that."

I paused. "Tidus, what exactly is the Farplane? Something about this is really started to make me nervous."

"They say it's where the souls of the dead go, after they're sent."

My remaining eye narrowed, as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. _So _that's_ the odd feeling I've been getting from Auron. He's already dead... So what is holding him in this world? Some task he has yet to complete?_ A loud, I said "I see. Well, that's certainly food for thought, isn't it? I wouldn't worry, though."

"I guess you're right."

----------------------------------------------

After reaching the bluish portal leading into the Farplane, Auron and Rikku paused before it, then sat on the steps. They apparently had no intention of going in.

"What's up?" Tidus asked the older Guardian.

"I do not belong there," Auron murmured. "It is not yet my time."

"Ah, you're just scared," he teased. "What about you, Rikku?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, but that place reacts to your thoughts, and mine are... private."

"Whatever." He looked at them a moment longer, then shrugged. "See you, then." Tidus turned, and slowly walked into the Farplane, with my siblings not far behind.

"What about you, Ian?" Rose asked.

I waved a hand. "You go on without me; I need to talk to Rikku." After she nodded, turned, and left, I glanced at the young Al Bhed. "Rikku, we need to talk."

"Yeah," she agreed. Glancing briefly at Auron, she stood. "C'mon; this isn't the place."

I followed her to the rock bridge that overlooked the rest of Guadosalam. "Okay, Rikku," I said after a moment, "it's time I got a little more information. It's obvious, since you were piloting that machina, that _you_ were trying to kidnap Yuna. I didn't call you on it earlier, despite the fact that I regard kidnappers as some of the lowest forms of life imaginable, because I felt that something else was going on, something that I didn't know about. So tell me: Exactly why are your people kidnapping summoners?"

She took a deep breath, as if preparing to speak of a very painful subject. "You know about the summoners' pilgrimage, right? How summoners visit each of the temples, receiving their aeons, until they reach Zanarkand, where they receive the Final Aeon?"

"Yeah, so? I'd heard that they used that to defeat Sin, if only for ten years. But what does that have to do with kidnapping?"

"Yunie will die, if she completes the pilgrimage!" After I drew back in surprise, Rikku visibly calmed herself. "The Final Aeon will kill her, too. We don't want the summoners to die!"

I raised a hand. "Wait a minute. If the summoners know this, and Yuna's behavior certainly indicates this, then they're making informed decisions. You have no right to interfere."

"But Sin won't be stopped for good! Don't you understand? The followers of Yevon have been trying for a _thousand years_, and Sin still comes back. They cling to the belief that one day, a summoner will bring about an Eternal Calm, but they can't!" She was pleading now. "And if you look at how the maesters act, you can tell they know that it's a never-ending cycle. But they don't tell their followers that! What we're trying to is save the summoners from pointlessly dying!"

Gathering my thoughts, I pulled out my pipe and lit it, thinking. This put the situation in an entirely different light, for if the summoners truly were ignorant of how pointless their journeys were, it was not truly kidnapping, but rather a form of protective custody.

Not that I expected Wakka to believe a word of it, especially if he found out _Rikku_ was Al Bhed.

"I see..." I said finally. "That changes things... But if that's the case, then why do you want to help Yuna complete her pilgrimage? Why do you want to help a friend die?"

"She's not just my friend," Rikku said. "Yunie's my cousin. Her mother was my dad's sister. And I don't want to help her die; I just want to protect her until I find a way to convince her to stop."

"That's a tough one," I acknowledged. "I don't think she'd believe in the duplicity of the maesters without some kind of proof, and without that, there's no way she'll quit her journey." I met Rikku's gaze. "How's this: you and I spend the rest of this miserable trip looking for another way to defeat Sin. I'm sure Yuna has no real desire to die; if we can find some way that will let her live, I think she'll jump at it."

"Great!" she agreed, with renewed optimism. "Hey, what about that magic you used on my machina? That was pretty powerful stuff!"

"Oh, this?" I lifted my Dragoon Spirit. "This is the Dragoon Spirit of the Diamond Dragon. I won't go into the full history of Dragoons right now -it'd take all day and most of the night- but suffice it to say that this is more powerful than any magic I've seen in Spira. Even if it were just myself alone, I could take out an aeon with this. I'm not sure how much good it would do against Sin, though. That thing's bloody huge. Unless..." I paused. "Tidus, though he doesn't know it yet, holds the Dragoon Spirit of the Divine Dragon, the King of Dragons. If it does indeed choose him as its bearer, Sin may have an opponent against which it cannot stand."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Rikku and I returned to the entrance of the Farplane just as our companions were leaving it. "So what did you see?" I asked my siblings and Rose.

I didn't get an answer; the Guado were uttering startled cries, and I turned. Staggering out of the Farplane was another Guado, bearing a resemblance to Seymour, but there was something unnerving about him. He... flickered, and faded, before our eyes, as if he wasn't really there. "Lord Jyscal!" one of the Guado exclaimed in fright.

Yuna stepped backward, eyes wide, as the shade approached her. "What...?"

Auron stepped forward. "He does not belong here! Yuna, send him!"

After another moment of hesitation, she raised her staff, and with a moan, the shade of this "Jyscal", whoever he was, faded away.

At the time, I didn't notice the sphere he left behind. It would not be until later that I learned the significance of this bizarre, unnatural occurrence.

--------------------------------------------------

As we finally began walking back toward Guadosalam proper, the Spirans seemed quite shaken, and I turned to my companions once more. "As I was saying before that kisoutengai ibento, what did you guys see in there?"

"I see dead people," Ryan said with a straight face, then abruptly turned serious, an occurrence that disturbed me more than Jyscal's appearance. "Seriously, niisan, what I saw was Yuna talking to her dead father, Yuna and Tidus seeing Tidus' dead mother and discussing it, and Wakka speaking with his dead brother. It was really, really strange."

"But nobody you recognized?" I pressed.

"No," Karen replied. "But when you think about it, that's not really a surprise. Nobody we know who's dead was ever 'sent', so why should they be here? Although I did half-expect to see Hideo Suzuki, or maybe Cassius."

"Not likely," I snorted. "Suzuki got thoroughly toasted when Ryan shot him, and I vaporized Cassius. I think their spirits were gone long before they possibly _could_ be sent. And good riddance; neither of them deserves a peaceful afterlife. I bloody well hope I sent that kakushigo straight to jigoku."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Ryan muttered. "I didn't live under the specter of Cassius as long as you did, Ian, but that guy scared me so bad I'm surprised my hair didn't turn white."

Surprisingly, it was Rikku who turned to respond to his comment. "Ryan, I've known you less than a day, but I can already tell that you just don't have the sense to be afraid. You'd be joking while something was eating you."

"So?"

I turned. "Okay, enough of that. What I want to know is, who was that 'Jyscal' fellow?"

"Maester Seymour's father," Yuna replied. "He died not long ago." She sounded troubled. After a moment, however, she continued speaking, changing the subject. "Before we leave, I must go see the maester, and give him my answer."

"Very well," Auron said. "We will await you near the Thunder Plains."

"That's another question," Karen said as Yuna left. "Just why are the Thunder Plains called that? And do I want to know?"

"There's a never-ending lightning storm there," Wakka said. "Gotta be quick on your feet, or you'll be hit, yah?"

I winced. "Lovely. Well, I've seen worse. At least it isn't a volcano or some equally inhospitable location."

Observing the reactions of the Spirans, I was puzzled to note Rikku's obvious fear; she didn't seem to be the type to be afraid of a simple storm, but one never knew. I made a mental note to talk to her about it later.

We dispersed then, waiting for Yuna to return from the malevolent maester's dwelling, and Rose and I wandered over to Tidus. Given his poorly-hidden attraction to the young summoner, I was interested in his reaction to Yuna's "decision" as regards Seymour's proposal.

"So what do you think, kid?" I asked. "Yuna seemed a little off-balance there."

He shrugged. "Ah, she's probably just a little shocked. I mean, a junior summoner being asked by a maester to marry him? But now that she's decided against it, I think she'll relax."

I looked at him curiously, and Rose cocked her head. "How do you know she intends to reject the proposal?" she asked. "Did she say?"

The young Blitzball player looked puzzled. "Not really, but it's obvious, isn't it? I mean, Seymour's just not her type at all."

"And who is? You?" I muttered. "Without being able to see inside Yuna's head, I don't think you can really say for certain, you know," I said in a higher voice. "But it ain't my business. That's for them to decide on their own."

Tidus once again got that look that said he didn't think I had any idea what I was talking about. "Whatever. Anyway, I'm gonna go check the Thunder Plains. See if anybody's coming, or going, or whatever..." His voice trailed off as he left.

"Something's up with him," I murmured to Rose. "I think our young compadre may just be serious about the summoner, whether he'll admit it to himself or not. Which means his behavior can be explained very simply."

"Jealousy?"

"Exactly. And I get the distinct impression he's starting to suspect the maester himself, if only subconsciously. He seems to... I don't know, bristle around Seymour. Though I suppose that could be for the same reason."

"We could try asking Ryan," Rose suggested. "For all his political naivety, he is a good judge of people."

"That's true," I acknowledged. "As long as we're prepared to whether the inevitable gallows humor he'll spout."

---------------------------------------------------

Ryan, as it turned out, was near where Rikku and I had spoken earlier. He appeared to have produced a second revolver, identical to the first, from somewhere, and was looking very much the stereotypical gunslinger, twirling the weapons on his fingers, practicing his quick-draw technique. "What's up, partner?" he asked as we approached. With one final twirl, he blew imaginary smoke from the gun barrels and dropped them into their holsters.

"This isn't the Wild West," I informed with a pained look, "and you're a ninja, not a cowboy, so drop the act! Anyway," I continued, irritation vented, "I want your opinion on the Spiran group."

"Well," he said after a moment of serious thought (a rare thing indeed, for him), "Wakka seems to be his usual self; I don't think anything he's seen here has affected him much, except maybe seeing his brother on the Farplane. Lulu and Kimahri likewise, though I note the big Ronso actually speaks once in awhile now. Auron... Auron's got something to do with the Farplane. I'm sure of that, from Tidus' report of Seymour's words, and his refusal to enter the place. I just can't figure out what."

"Then your mental abilities still need refinement," I said, "because if they were up to snuff you'd have realized by now that Auron is already dead."

The only reaction my madcap brother allowed himself was a brief widening of his eyes, before he returned to his analysis. "Tidus, as I think you've already noticed, is suspicious and jealous of the maester. He also has the classic teenager feeling that anyone over twenty has the brains of a turkey."

"And Yuna?"

"Yuna's the most confusing of the bunch," Ryan admitted. "It's easy to read her emotions, and her basic intentions, but beyond that..." and he shrugged. "But I _can_ tell you that Jyscal's appearance unnerved her pretty bad, and there's more to it than we know. She's also intimidated by Seymour, and I'm not at all sure she's fully made up her mind about him. But I can't be sure." He shrugged again. "That what you wanted to know, Boss?"

"Pretty much." I allowed myself a brief grin. "At least we caught you at a time when you're at least semi-sane!"

"Hey!"

I turned at the shout: Tidus was running toward us. "Something up?"

"Yeah," he said, taking a moment to catch his breath. "I just ran into Shelinda, just inside the tunnel to the Thunder Plains. She said that Seymour's already left!"

"Must have been while we were in the Farplane," Ryan murmured. "How come _you_ didn't notice, niisan? You stayed in the real world."

"I was busy," I said shortly, unwilling to discuss the matter in front of Tidus. "Well, if Seymour's gone, we'd better fetch Yuna and the others and get going. Come on."

Disdaining more mundane methods of getting to the lower part of town (such as walking), I jumped over the railing, landing in the midst of the group of Guardians, who were waiting just outside the mansion.

"You have news?" Auron asked in his quiet, grave voice.

"Indeed. Maester Seymour left via the Thunder Plains while Yuna and the rest of you were still in the Farplane. There's not much point in staying here any longer."

"Indeed," Auron agreed. "Yuna!" he called, walking to the door. "Seymour is not here. It is time to move on."

"I'll be right there!" Her voice was faint, from within those walls, but clear.

"She's plotting something," I murmured to Rose. "I don't know what, but we must be on our guard. Yuna may be in greater danger than we thought."

--------------------------------------------------------

After Yuna had rejoined us, we went to the entrance too the Thunder Plains, and I gazed on that unnatural landscape with my own eyes for the first time. "Not exactly the sort of place one would wish to linger," I said softly. "On the other hand, if you people used machina more, you could harness that electrical power and use it to your advantage."

"That's against the teachings," Wakka said with a sneer, stalking toward me, "and unnatural, too. Just like that city over the river, yah?"

"You, my friend, really need to get a better idea of what's 'unnatural', and perhaps grow a brain while you're at it." I turned my back; I was getting fed up with Wakka's true-believer attitude, and didn't really care anymore how he thought of me. As long as he kept his opinions to himself, at least.

Apparently, he'd forgotten my earlier death threat, and he continued to move towards me, doing his best (which wasn't very good) to look menacing. "I'm tired of you bad-mouthing Yevon," he snarled. "You keep using machina and defying the teachings, and you're just gonna make things worse for everybody! Just like the Al Bhed!"

"Wakka, _shut up_," I snarled, patience exhausted. "If you don't stop being a bigoted idiot, I'll-"

I never finished my sentence, for to my astonishment, the big guy charged me from behind, though what he intended to accomplish I didn't know.

Whatever it was, I short-stopped it: I turned, grabbed his wrist, spun him around, and pinned him to the ground with his hand behind his back. "This will be the last time, Wakka," I said in a soft, dangerous voice. "If I were seriously trying to hurt you, you wouldn't stand a chance against me. I am far beyond you normal humans." After another moment, I let him up, then turned away again. "Don't try it again if you want to live."

After a moment of stunned silence, Rikku spoke up, gazing nervously at the stormy landscape. "Uh, I think I forgot something in town. I'd better go get it."

"Farewell, then," Auron said, seeing through the excuse.

"All right, all right, I'll go," she said finally. "Let's hurry then, okay?"

"I just don't understand why you're afraid of a little lightning," Ryan said, grinning. He stepped out into the storm, still talking. "I mean, I've been in lot's of thunderstorms, and it's not something to be-"

A crack and a sizzle interrupted him, and Ryan stood transfixed, glowing for a moment as a lightning bolt hit the top of his head and kept on going till it expended itself in the ground beneath him.

He stood a moment longer, twitching, then collapsed on the ground. His hair was smoldering, and when he finally mustered the energy to crawl back toward us, his body was still twitching.

I couldn't help but laugh as he finally dragged himself to shelter. "On second thought," Ryan said in a high-pitched, stuttering voice, "maybe we _should_ hurry."  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's note: I'm sure this must have given you all heart failure, seeing an update this soon. Especially given how long it took me to get the last couple of chapters up. But I shall endeavor to speed things up a little, and the next chapter will begin with the Thunder Plains, possibly reaching Macalania Temple.

Reiko5, all I can say is, wait and see. I believe the battle with Seymour will be rather… interesting. I'm not entirely sure how he's going to die as yet, but I have some ideas.

Songwind, as for Wakka, I believe he suffers from the same problem most bigots do: he doesn't bother to _learn_ anything about the people he hates. It simply doesn't occur to people like that.

Translations for this chapter: "Kisoutengai ibento" is "bizarre event"; and "jigoku" is "hell".

I think that covers everything; read it and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark


	12. Chapter 12: Prelude to Tragedy

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, and Kenji Okamura

* * *

Following Ryan's encounter with a lightning bolt, our group moved cautiously into the Thunder Plains, while keeping a constant eye out for lightning.

I kept close to Rikku; if I was correct in my theory that her problem with lightning was a phobia, she would need encouragement to get through the ghastly place. "So why are you afraid of thunder?" I quietly asked her.

She shrugged. "Well... A few years ago, I was on the beach when a water fiend attacked me. My brother used a Thunder spell on it, but he missed and hit me, instead. I've hated lightning ever since."

"I see," I said, nodding sympathetically. "I'm not exactly sure what the other natives of Spira would think of it, but my world knows a little about psychology. While most of what psychologists spout is mere psychobabble, we do know about irrational fears that you can't rid yourself of. We can them phobias, in case that means anything to you."

She blinked. "Uh, not really." Then she smiled. "But at least you took my mind off the storm!"

"Glad to help."

Abruptly, she frowned. "Wait a minute. What do you mean, 'your world'? Aren't you from Spira, too?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean nobody's gotten around to mentioning it? These Dragoon Spirits ain't exactly the sort of thing you'd find in Spira. Neither are the guns, for that matter. I'm originally from a place called Earth, and I came here from the land of Endiness." I proceeded to give her a brief rundown of what had happened in the past six years.

"Wow!" Rikku's expression was an odd mixture of surprise, disbelief, and interest. "Not even the ancient machina could do that!"

"It's magic, not science," I said with a shrug. "I don't pretend to understand it either. As long as it works, I'm happy."

I was about to say more, but in the brief flash of light from an electrical discharge, I saw a figure standing on one of the lightning rods. I discerned that he had red hair, and wore a tattered cloak. There was a golden ring on his finger, a coiled snake with jade eyes.

When next the sky lit, the man was gone, and I could determine nothing else. But what I had seen startled me. _Him!? What's he doing here!?_ I stopped in my tracks, staring open-mouthed at the spot the man had been occupying. _d'Eltham... How the devil did you get here, and why? Have you come for the same reason as before?_

Rikku noticed my astonishment, and paused, concerned. "Hey, Ian? Is something wrong?"

I shook off the feeling. "Uh, no... No, it's nothing. Just... thought I saw a ghost, that's all."

"You _are_ weird," she commented, sounding almost admiring. "But I guess nobody in this group is exactly normal."

"Too true." I slowly swept my gaze over each of my companions. _Three ninja, two worlds removed from their own... One Black Monster, still learning to live and love again... A man from a city that hasn't existed in a thousand years... A Blitzball player turned Guardian, who's a little too much of the true believer... An almost silent monster who walks like a man and fights like a force of nature... A young summoner who is clearly _way_ over her head in something... A Gothic woman who was once nearly engaged to Wakka's brother, and seems to have some feelings toward him... An Al Bhed who is guarding a Yevonite... And a man who is already dead, yet walks among the living; as if he still has one last task to complete..._

My musing brought something else to mind, and I turned to the young Al Bhed once again. "By the way, you said Yuna's mother was your father's sister. Would your father's name be Cid, by any chance?"

She looked surprised. "Yeah; how'd you know?"

I shrugged. "Yuna once mentioned that her father, Braska, told her that if she was ever in any trouble, she should seek out the help of her Al Bhed uncle, Cid. So it stood to reason that your father would be that uncle."

"Yeah; Yunie's mother was Dad's only sibling. That's also why Yunie has different-colored eyes; that's the mark of a half-Al Bhed."

"Most interesting..."

* * *

Most of the rest of the journey through that area of the Thunder Plains was uneventful, but tedious; dashing from lightning rod to lightning rod in search of shelter.

When we reached an Al Bhed Travel Agency, however, Rikku begged us to take a break; the storm was getting to her.

Auron finally acquiesced, saying, "We rest. She's worse than the storm."

_She does get her way... when she wants it badly enough,_ I mused.

While the others went in to rest, I stayed outside, with Rose and Ryan. "I just don't quite understand being afraid of thunderstorms," I murmured. "I mean, I realize she had a bad experience with it, but I find it rather soothing."

"Oh, believe me, I can understand it," Ryan said fervently. "After you've been struck by lightning, you want to avoid a repeat performance."

I smirked, remembering my brother's encounter just as we entered the Plains. "Your own fault, brother. You should have been more cautious." Then I subsided, staring into the storm.

"Something wrong, Ian?" Rose asked with concern.

"Ahh, I just have a very bad feeling about what's to come. A premonition, almost." I unconsciously rubbed my eyepatch, then lit my pipe. "And I feel a faint aura, a familiar one... But I can't place it. And it seems to be tainted with a mechanical presence. A combination of organic and machine..." I forbore to mention the figure I had seen in the lightning flash.

Ryan closed his eyes, clearly stretching out with his own paranormal senses. After a moment, he nodded slightly, and opened his eyes. "You're right, niisan, though it doesn't feel familiar to me. I've never encountered anything like it." He paused, considering, as if what he was about to say was something he didn't really believe himself, and didn't expect me to believe. "Niisan... Isn't that kind of how you'd expect a cyborg to feel?"

I started to shake my head, then paused thoughtfully. "You know, Ryan, you may have something, at that. I know the Hideoshi family was working on something like that before they were wiped out, so it's not impossible. But it _would_ be extremely odd to find one in a place like Spira."

Rose frowned, not understanding what we were talking about. "What, exactly, is a 'cyborg'?"

"Cybernetic organism," Ryan replied. "You take a human being, then replace things like certain internal organs, skeletal structures, and the like with machines, and maybe add a computer built right into the brain and maybe a powered exoskeleton. To my knowledge, even Hideoshi Industries, a clan-run company, never got beyond the prototype stage, and even then, there were no human test subjects. But it could be that someone found the research and ran with it, maybe adding in a little gene-therapy."

"And the result would be a super-soldier," I said quietly. "Stronger, faster, and maybe even smarter than a normal man. And capable of absorbing far more punishment. It's entirely possible that even I, or you, Rose, would be unable to defeat such an opponent, especially if he were armed with some type of firearm, or, worse yet, a laser."

"Or she," Rose pointed out softly. "I can't get as clear a read on this 'presence' as you two, but I believe it's a she."

"Well, that narrows it down," Ryan said sarcastically. "That still leaves a lot of people Ian's known over the years. Even if you limit it to Terrans."

"I think she's right, brother," I murmured. "I also think that I'm not going to like this one bit. How many people have I known that you haven't...?" After a moment of useless speculation, I shrugged. "Not important right now. Now we need to rest, at least until Auron says it's time to move on."

"Why Auron?"

"Well, you didn't think _Yuna_ was in charge of this jaunt, did you?"

* * *

Auron got us moving again not long after that.

As we entered the next and, theoretically, final section of the Thunder Plains, I studied the Spirans, assessing their attitudes. Something seemed... different.

In particular, Yuna appeared greatly disturbed by something, and seemed to be psyching herself up for something. Tidus, on the other hand, looked very embarrassed by something, though I couldn't begin to guess what; though it did seem to have something to do with the young summoner.

As always, Auron and Kimahri were pretty much unreadable, while Wakka and Lulu seemed about the same. Rikku, fortunately, had obviously rested enough to avoid freaking out on the rest of the trek through the storm.

I couldn't shake my own misgivings; our brief rest had only intensified them. I wasn't sure what disturbed me more: the fact that I had them, or the fact that I was the only feeling it.

To me, this suggested that whatever it was, it was _my_ problem, not Rose's, not Ryan's, not Karen's. _Mine_. And that scared the daylights out of me.

Perhaps, if I had known in time, things would have been different. Maybe... I could have...

* * *

Around halfway through the journey across the Plains, Yuna called a brief halt, and we gathered in the shelter of one of the lightning rods.

"I feel that I should tell you all what my decision is," she said. Taking a deep breath, she continued, "I... I have decided to accept Maester Seymour's proposal."

"What!?" The stolid Wakka looked stunned, and Tidus bore the expression of someone who'd just been punched in the gut by a Virage.

"As Maester Seymour said, a summoner's duty is to give happiness to all of Spira," Yuna began. "I believe that this will bring happiness to the people."

"Is she nuts?" Ryan muttered with his usual lack of tact.

I put a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Quiet, Ryan. It's not our business who Yuna decides to marry."

"Yeah, but I thought..."

_But I thought it would be Tidus,_ I thought, silently completing his sentence. "I know, Ryan, but it is still none of our business. Concentrate on the mission, brother."

He took a deep breath, smoothing his face. "You're right, of course, niisan. The sooner we complete the mission, the sooner we're back at the dojo. Never thought I'd say this, but I actually miss the day-to-day routine. At least there we've got things like running water, electric lights, and air beds."

"You're getting soft, Ryan," I chided. "Better watch yourself, or I might take apart the generator some night, scatter the pieces, and tell you to find them and reassemble them by dawn."

His horrified expression was priceless.

"You are sure?" Auron said to Yuna.

"Yes."

_She's up to something..._

He examined her face for a moment, then finally nodded. "Very well. Let us move on."

"I think you're right, Ian," Rose told me as the entourage got underway once more. "She's almost certainly up to something."

I turned my head and looked at her through narrowed eyes. "You never mentioned you could read minds, love."

"Not your mind, just your face." She chuckled at my expression. "Oh, a stranger wouldn't see anything, but to anyone who actually knows you, you might as well be screaming it."

"I'll have to work on that," I muttered.

Karen paused for a moment, mid-step. "You know, Ian, Ryan's not the only one who's looking forward to the completing the mission. I'd like to get back myself, check up on everybody..."

"And go see Lavitz, right?" I said, smirking. Her relationship with the Serdian knight was not unknown to me.

The chop to my ear was delivered with such blinding speed I never saw it coming, and I collapsed, dazed. "Watch it, niisan! That's none of your business!"

"Okay, okay," I said weakly, "I won't say another word. Ouch," I added, and moaned a couple of times, rubbing my head.

Karen looked satisfied as I dragged myself back to my feet, then sniffed and walked away. "She's been practicing," Rose noted. "That's the first time I've seen her actually hit you. Even Ryan only managed it while he was under Soul Slayer's influence."

"I wasn't expecting it, that's all." I winced. "Though I suppose I should have, knowing my sister." Watching her go, I noted with a certain amount of trepidation that she was now speaking with Rikku. "One thing, Rose... Let's make sure that Rikku never, _ever_ gets together with both Meru and Karen. That just doesn't bear thinking about."

* * *

When we finally reached the entrance to Macalania Forest, Ryan heaved an audible sigh of relief, along with Rikku. Now that they were out of the thunderstorm, they were both much more cheerful.

"Better get over your little problem with lightning, brother," I advised. "Especially since our Gothic friend seems fond of Thunder Magic."

"Ahh, I'll be fine," Ryan replied. "I'm just still a little 'shocked' from my encounter with it."

I rolled my eye; he always _did_ have a penchant for bad jokes. I estimated it would be a century or two before he got to the emotional age of fifteen or sixteen.

"How many malevolent forests does this make that we've gone through in the last six years?" Rose wondered aloud.

"Hmm." Karen scratched her head. "Well, let's see... First there was the forest outside Seles, then the Dragon's Nest and the woods leading to Deningrad... and the forest on the way to Kilika Temple. So this is the fifth. Though it seems like the hundredth, doesn't it, Rose?"

"Yes, it does." Gazing at the forest ceiling for a moment, she frowned. "I wonder what happened to that 'Alucard' fellow. Now that Cassius is dead, I'd have thought he'd have returned, if only to check up on you, Ian."

"You never really know with Alucard," I replied with a shrug. "Maybe he's gone back into hibernation, or maybe he just has more important things to worry about. Who knows?" Pausing for a moment, I drew Raiden-Ken, rolled sideways, and bisected a mean-looking fiend. "Anyway," I continued, sheathing my blade, "_our_ primary concern at the moment is getting through this dratted forest with our hides intact."

* * *

Deep within the forest, the summoner Dona's Guardian, Barthello, came running over to us. "Hey!" he called, puffing with exertion. "Have you seen Dona? We got separated."

"Dona?" Tidus frowned. "No, we haven't. Why?"

"Damn it!" he cursed. "I've got to find her!"

"Calm yourself," Auron said quietly. "Guard your emotions, then guard your summoner."

Barthello looked angry for a moment, then took a deep breath and nodded. "You're right." He took several more deep breaths. "Excuse me," he said, and ran off.

Noting Rikku's strange look, Tidus walked over to her. "What is it?"

She shook herself. "Oh, I just wanted to wish him luck, that's all."

I gave her a sidelong glance. _Why do I get the feeling that the Al Bhed are responsible for this? Not that I mind; even Dona doesn't deserve a fate like that._

Over an hour later, as we neared the edge of the forest, Auron paused, turning toward a side path that was blocked off by some kind of crystalline formation. "There is something you should see," he said.

"But-" Wakka protested.

"It won't take long." Auron hefted his huge sword, let his left arm fall from its sling, and swung, time and again, slicing the obstruction into tiny pieces. "Come."

In the clearing at the end of the trail, a small pool full of some kind of liquid lay at the base of a tree. "Wow," Rikku said in awe. "What is it?"

"This is what spheres are made from," Auron replied.

Moments later, a large, spherical _thing_ arose from the pool. "Fiends are also attracted to such places," he added. "Draw your weapons."

With a dubious glance at the bizarre fiend, I drew my katana once more. "What _is_ this thing?" I wondered aloud.

"A Spheromorph," Wakka replied, animosity temporarily forgotten in the face of battle. "I've heard of 'em, but I never thought I'd see one. Use magic on these guys, yah? Physical strikes don't work to well. They're like big Flans, 'cept these guys change element sometimes. Be careful!"

"No kidding." Elemental; that would put all four of us Dragoons at a disadvantage; three of us were non-elemental, and the fourth was Dark, which didn't seem to have an equivalent here. In that case... "Ryan," I barked, "get ready for _kuji_ fire spells. Karen, you use water, and Rose" for over the years, she too had learned _kuji_ "you use ice. I'll go with lightning." Those four, since they seemed to be the most common elements in Spira.

The following battle was grueling, yet I had a sense of foreboding. Whatever it was that I had been sensing earlier, it was soon going to show itself.

I was distracted a moment too long, and I didn't realize the danger approaching me until Tidus shouted. "Ian! Look out!"

Instinctively I whirled, jumped, and somersaulted through the air over the incoming spell, stabbing backwards into the fiend as I landed. "Die, you piece of protoplasmic garbage!"

Abruptly, and to my complete and total surprise, my katana was batted aside by another. "You have other problems," a feminine, electronic-tinged voice said behind me.

I spun to face the owner of the voice, and found myself face-to-face with the entity I had sensed earlier, the one Ryan had correctly thought to be a cyborg. And, as Rose had predicted, a female. No trace of her features were visible, for she was covered in a gray exoskeleton, with a featureless helmet. She carried a naked blade in one hand.

"Who are you!?" I demanded, smoothly assuming a fighting stance.

"Have you forgotten me, Ian?" Though difficult to tell through the exoskeleton, the cyborg seemed disappointed. "I have come from another world to do battle with you," she continued. "I will kill you, or you will kill me. It makes no difference."

"I do not know who you are," I said quietly. "But I do not believe I have any quarrel with you. Leave, and I will not harm you."

"No, Ian," my adversary said softly. "This must be done." She raised her blade. "Come and fight!"

"As you wish." Raising Raiden-Ken, I moved swiftly forward, beginning with a conservative slash, which was easily turned aside. I continued into the Dancing Death, sill attempting to end this fight in a nonlethal manner. A ninja ruthlessly dealt with his enemies, but I refused to kill some one I had never before met if I could avoid it.

She seemed to have other ideas: her return blow opened a shallow cut on my right cheek and severed the strap holding my eyepatch on, causing it to flutter to the ground. "To the death, Ian. That is how this must be."

Using cybernetically-enhanced reflexes, the cyborg unleashed a powerful, insanely fast combination that I was only barely able to block, and I was forced to leap over the final strike.

As we went at it, with the battle with the Spheromorph going on behind us, I reflected that the only entity who had given me this much trouble was Cassius; even Count Draco von Schneider wouldn't have lasted this long had we ever fought a straight-out duel. Come to think of it, he hadn't.

I tried a powerful backhand slash, and that was when the battle ended, for the cyborg woman's return blow cut off my right arm above the elbow.

Stunned, I stared as my sword arm dropped to the ground, still holding my blade in a tight grip. "Wh-what...?" I couldn't even feel it; I was still in shock from the injury, and I stared helplessly up at the woman who was about to kill me. Not even my ring would help me now, for it was on the hand I no longer had. "Why?"

She knelt, picked up the ring, and tossed it into the watery pool. "It had to be done." She raised her blade once more...

Only to have it knocked away as the man whom I had seen in the Thunder Plains dropped out of the trees, red hair and gray cloak fluttering in the wind of his passage. "Get away from him," he said coldly, standing between me and the cyborg. "It is not his time."

Without answering, she glanced first at him, then at me. Then she nodded, touched some kind of control on her exoskeleton, and vanished.

"d'Eltham...?" I said weakly, clutching my stump. "What are you...?" Before I could complete my question, my injury caught up with me, my eyes rolled back into my head, and I surrendered to unconsciousness.

* * *

Author's note: Pretty unexpected, eh? I realize the cyborg may seem a little out of place, but it'll be explained soon enough, as will Ian's mysterious rescuer. And, of course, Ian himself will not be left in this condition too long.

Songwind, there was indeed a section I was looking forward to, and I have just reached it. I should have the next chapter up before too long. As to your other question, I haven't decided yet.

YojimbosBlade, as long as you don't use my characters and such, you don't need my permission to write an LoD/FFX crossover. I own my characters and certain alterations to the storyline, nothing more.

I think that about covers everything. Read it and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark


	13. Chapter 13: Aria of Sorrow

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Victor d'Eltham

* * *

I was still sprawled next to the pool where we had fought the Spheromorph when I awoke.

Groggy, I reflexively reached over my shoulder with my right hand, expecting to grasp the hilt of my blade. It came as a shock when my hand encountered nothing.

For I no longer had a right hand.

"Lie still, Ian," Rose said, holding my remaining hand. "You're still in shock from your wound, and you need to rest; you've never been hurt this badly before."

"What...?" Incredulous, I stared at the stump of my right arm, severed above the elbow. Then memories began to flood back, of my duel with the cyborg ninja, whose feminine voice I seemed to remember from some other place and time, and of the surprise appearance of Victor d'Eltham, arriving when he was least expected.

"How is he, Rose?" Ryan asked anxiously from where he stood, a few feet away. "Is he gonna make it?"

"There was never any doubt of that, Ryan," she replied. "But, like his eye, the arm is gone for good. And so is his ring; after it sank, it melted, for reasons I do not comprehend."

I groaned. "How long was I out?"

"About an hour, niisan," Karen answered, standing guard. "Ever since that guy with the broadsword drove off the cyborg. Who was he, anyway? You looked like you knew him."

"I do," I replied. Despite Rose's protests, I carefully sat up, then stood, trying not to look at my arm. "That was Victor d'Eltham, a mystery man who is at least six hundred years old. I don't know much about him myself, but he's no vampire, you can be sure of that. I don't know how he's survived this long, but he's no bloodsucker. I met him eight years ago, in Bavaria. He refused to explain himself until we had fought, but after our battle ended in a draw, he revealed some of who he was and what he was doing."

Moving awkwardly, I shifted Raiden-Ken's scabbard so that the hilt would point over my left should, stooped to pick up the blade and sheath it, and then continued. "Victor said he'd been waiting for centuries for me, or someone like me, to arrive, though he didn't say precisely why. He did, however, seem pleased at my skill with a blade. He also mentioned that he was once a member of the Knights Templar, during the time of the Crusades. I gather that it was as a Templar Knight that he became immortal, however it was that he managed it. Since then," I continued, rubbing my arm, "he's shown up occasionally to 'test my skills', or pull my bacon out of the fire. I recall an incident in Rome, in particular."

"What about that ninja thing?" Ryan asked. "Who was she?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, brother. Whoever she is, she seems intent on fighting me to the death." I frowned. "I honestly can't think of any women I've met that you haven't who'd want to kill me, aside from a few vampires I've killed. Couldn't be one of them, anyway; it was hard to tell through the exoskeleton's mic, but I think her accent was French."

"With you, Ian, you never can tell," Karen said, shaking her head. "You make the _weirdest_ enemies, sometimes."

"It's a talent."

* * *

My announcement that I was prepared to travel took the Spirans by surprise. "But you're wounded!" Yuna protested.

"Yeah, you lost an arm, in case you didn't notice!" Rikku agreed.

Auron, on the other hand, gazed at me with an evaluating look in his eyes. "You are sure?"

"Auron, if I couldn't fight one-handed with either hand, I wouldn't have passed my ninjutsu training," I replied, understanding exactly what he meant. "And I want to find out exactly what's going on. That cyborg..." I trailed off, lost in my own thoughts.

"What is a cyborg, yah?" Wakka asked. For once, even his tone was merely one of polite inquiry; perhaps he recognized the severity of my injury and didn't wish to add insult to grievous bodily harm.

"Are you sure you wanna know?" Karen asked him. "It's machina, if that's what you were thinking. Pretty advanced, even for us."

"Uh, never mind," he said. "If it's machina, I don't even wanna know."

"It shouldn't pose too much of an obstacle for all of us," Auron observed, hefting his huge blade.

I firmly shook my head. "Thanks for the offer, but no. This is something I have to deal with alone, without help. Even you, Rose," I added. "I'm sorry, but this, more than any other battle I've ever fought, is mine to fight, and mine alone."

"I see," the legendary Guardian said. "I understand. Some battles must be fought alone."

I, of course, didn't understand why he had just repeated what I had said, but the Spirans seemed in awe of his statement, so I let it pass.

* * *

We finally emerged from that accursed forest within minutes, and we found ourselves in a snowy region. "So this is Macalania," I mused. "Chilly, isn't it?" I turned to Yuna. "Let me guess: you get an Ice-elemental aeon from the temple here."

"Probably," she replied. "But, since my father left me behind on his pilgrimage, I can't be sure. I've never seen it."

"Hey, isn't that Trommel?" Karen said abruptly, pointing to a figure nearing us. "Definitely a Guado, from the hair."

It was indeed Seymour's aide-de-camp. "Lady Yuna," he said, bowing. "Maester Seymour wishes to apologize for having left so abruptly; we were not expecting your answer so soon."

"It is all right," she replied.

"Please, this way, My Lady." Trommel began leading her off, down the trail toward the Temple.

Yuna paused briefly as Tidus whistled suddenly, and she nodded, before moving once more. I assumed that this particular whistle held some sort of significance to them, though I had no idea what.

"Look out!" Wakka shouted suddenly, pointed down the hill. Al Bhed on snowmobiles were surrounding Yuna and Trommel, shouting gibberish.

As the Guardians simply leapt down to the base of the hill, I turned to my own group and uttered one word: "Go." I immediately followed my own command, drawing my katana with my remaining hand. "I may be short-handed," I cracked as I jumped, "but that doesn't make me helpless!"

The Al Bhed scattered away as the wave of warriors approached, abandoning their vehicles in the process. Aggressive as they were, they appeared reluctant to face this many armed people at once.

Instead, they brought in a large machine, which had a very bizarre form of wheels, resembling drill bits. Before they unleashed it, Rikku conversed sharply in Al Bhed with what appeared to be the leader, and after a moment she gasped. "Translation!?" Tidus asked.

"They're going to use an anti-magic field on us!"

"Why, those..." Ryan advanced, lips curled in a snarl, and drew his blade.

I stepped in his path. "Kotonashi kadan, nakamadoushi," I said softly in our native tongue. "Yabuwotsutsuitehebiwodasu."

"Temae kichigai," Rose murmured in my ear, but even she turned her attention to the machine, which was clearly the more immediate threat. "Any ideas on how we kill this thing?"

"That is a question," I admitted. "I faced nastier armored vehicles back home, but always with AP or HE rounds."

"Stand back, niisan," Karen broke in. "Duck!"

Now, whenever I hear my impetuous younger sister say "Duck!", I know that it's a very good idea. With her, you never know what crazy stunt she'll pull next, so I dropped to my stomach faster than a chef testing his Ginsu knives.

Just in time for the miniature rockets from her Gyrojet to sail through the space where my head had been a moment earlier. Despite the accuracy problems the weapon had (which was why the hand-held rocket launcher had never caught on), the Al Bhed machine was a pretty big target. All of them struck dead on, inflicting a great deal of damage.

Unfortunately, so did the machine's retaliatory strike. Mana Beam!

Ryan was the only one in the beam's path, and I rectified that by kicking his legs out from under him. But the attack still grazed him, and he cursed as his hair lit on fire. "Hot!" he added, batting at the flames. "HothothothotHOT!"

"NulBlaze!" Yuna called out, raising her staff. The spell put out the fire swiftly, though his hands were still burned.

"Thanks," he gasped. "Ouch."

"This is for the fallen!" Auron swung his heavy blade, using the same technique with which he had irritated Cassius days earlier. Only this time, it did much more than merely irritate. The machine split in half, smoking.

The leader of the attacking Al Bhed looked astonished, stuttered out a few more words to Rikku, and fled.

Looking suspicious, Wakka strode over to her. "Hey, how come you speak their language, yah?"

She sighed. "Because... I'm Al Bhed. And that... was my brother."

The big man turned to Lulu. "You knew?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because we knew you'd be upset."

"This is great!" He scowled fiercely. "I can't believe I've been traveling with an Al Bhed, a heathen!"

"That's not true!" Rikku protested. "We have nothing against Yevon!"

"Then why do you disobey Yevon's teachings, huh!?"

"Why shouldn't we!?" she demanded. "What's so great about Yevon, anyway!? You just blindly follow the teachings, without bothering to think for yourselves! If Yevon's so great, then why is Sin still here?"

"Because people used machina! But if we continue to repent for our sins, someday Sin will be gone forever!"

"When!?" she demanded sensibly. "We Al Bhed think that there might be another way to defeat Sin, you know!"

"Only summoners can defeat Sin." Wakka stated this as if it were an immutable law of nature.

"Wakka, get over your dogmatic ignorance, will ya?" Ryan said in frustration. "Just because nobody's yet found a way to defeat Sin without summoners doesn't mean nobody ever _will_. On our world, that 'it didn't happen yesterday, so it won't happen tomorrow' attitude probably set back powered flight by several years, and blinded people to its potential when it finally did arrive."

"Yeah, and nothing will ever change if you keep that attitude!" Rikku agreed.

"Nothing has to change!"

I rolled my eye. _Okay, if we can't manage it by reasoned arguments, perhaps some scientific theory in terms he doesn't understand will at least keep him confused long enough to smooth things over._ "Wakka," I said, "back home we've got what is called the 'Asymmetry Theory'. According to this theory, evolution" I didn't bother mentioning that I thought evolution was the biggest crock since astrology, since it wasn't relevant to my goal "favors asymmetry. All the forms of life on our world that have become extinct show signs of symmetry. That means that if there is no change, you become stagnant, and, eventually, _extinct_. Get my drift?"

As I had hoped, he was thoroughly confused by my explanation, and finally walked away with a grunt, shaking his head all the while.

"Sorry we couldn't do more about him," Ryan said softly, "but I think he'll at least leave you alone for awhile."

"Thanks for trying, anyway."

"Rikku," Auron broke in. "Does this thing move?" He indicated one of the abandoned snowmobiles.

"Yes!" She ran over, suddenly cheerful again, and demonstrated its controls.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Tidus asked.

"You sure you know how to use this?"

He watched Kimahri hop onto one and drive off, and he snorted. "Better than Kimahri does!"

* * *

The snowmobiles sped up our trip a great deal, and we arrived at Macalania Temple much faster than I had expected.

Of course, we instantly ran into a problem at the door, when the guard spotted Rikku. "You may not pass. Your kind is not welcome here."

"She is a Guardian," Auron said softly, eyes narrowed.

The Yevonite gasped audibly. "An Al Bhed, a Guardian!? Impossible!"

"Look, I want to protect Yunie, and that's all I want," Rikku said.

"And that is all one needs to be a Guardian," Auron agreed.

"Very well." The guard stood aside.

I held back as the others entered. "Rose, you and Karen go in with them. Ryan and I will take another route."

Rose cocked her head, smiling slightly. "You're planning something big, aren't you? Expecting trouble?"

"Always."

"When will we meet up?"

I half-smiled. "Believe me, you'll know."

She held my gaze a moment longer, then nodded. "Okay. We'll meet you inside." She and my sister followed the Spiran party into the temple.

"So, what _are_ you planning, Boss?" Ryan asked, rubbing his hands together. "Something nasty?"

My slight smile became a grin. "We, Ryan, are going to climb onto the roof of the antechamber just before the Fayth. If something goes wrong, as I expect, we're going in."

Within minutes we were in position, and via some high-tech audio goodies, we were able to listen in on the events below us. "Seymour!"

* * *

Switch to third-person POV

* * *

On the heels of Tidus' shout, Karen raised Buke-Kontan, the Warrior's Soul, to an offensive position. Her palms itched, and it seemed to her that her blade desired Seymour's blood as much as she did.

The contents of the sphere Jyscal had left behind had shocked and appalled her, and she knew that Rose, while more accustomed to such things, felt much the same.

"Please be silent," Seymour said, replying to Tidus. "Lady Yuna prays to the Fayth."

"Make me!"

At that, the maester turned, an eyebrow raised. But before he could reply, the door behind him opened, and Yuna stepped out, then paused, seeing her Guardians arrayed before her with their weapons drawn. "What are you...?"

"We saw Jyscal's sphere!"

"You killed him," Auron said coldly.

"Oh, I see." Seymour turned to Yuna. "You must have known this. So why did you come here?"

She stood amongst her Guardians. "I came..." She faltered for a moment. "I came to stop you!"

The murderous half-breed took a step toward her, and the Guardians blocked his way. "Ah, of course. 'Protect the summoner even at the cost of one's life.' The Code of the Guardian."

Yuna raised her staff. "Maester Seymour, they may be my Guardians, but they are also my friends. I will not stand by and watch them be hurt! I will fight you, too!"

"So be it." Seymour raised his own staff, then gestured, apparently summoning reinforcements.

When none arrived, he looked puzzled, and Karen grinned savagely. "Don't expect any help, Seymour," she said with savage glee. "I killed your Guado friends before we even got in here, right after I saw that sphere."

"So you show your true colors at last," he replied, shaking his head. "You would murder fellow sentient beings in cold blood."

"Don't try that particular word game on _me_, Seymour. I've done the same thing dozens of times, and if the target so richly deserves his demise, it's not murder. It's just a preemptive strike."

"You will not have the chance to do the same to me, however." He twirled his staff. "Feel my pain! Come, Anima!"

Karen's cheerful expression vanished as the aeon she had last seen in Luca took shape before them. "Uh-oh."

What happened next, no one had predicted. Tidus let out a yell, and the Dragoon Spirit of the Divine Dragon began to glow brightly, blindingly. His entire body was consumed by it, and when it faded, Tidus was covered in gray armor, with only part of his face exposed. It was vaguely insectoid in appearance, and six wings sprouted from his back. His left arm had become a cannon, and despite the somewhat less-than-aesthetically pleasing armor, he was just about the nastiest-looking thing Karen had ever seen, even (barely) eclipsing her brother's Diamond armor.

Seymour looked surprised, and Tidus himself was positively stunned. "What in the world...!?"

"You have become a Dragoon," Rose said hurriedly, "like us. And now you need to use that power. Harness its magical strength!"

What followed Tidus' intense concentration turned what should have been a crushing defeat into a smashing victory. "Divine Dragon Cannon!"

Ninja, Black Monster, and Guardians all scattered as the massive energy beam lanced out and caught Anima right in the eye.

Seymour looked positively poleaxed as his powerful minion succumbed to the assault and vanished completely. "The power that defeated Anima," he said in awe. "It must be mine!"

That was when the next completely unexpected event occurred: in two places, the ceiling literally exploded, raining dust, debris... and a pair of ninja.

Ryan landed easily in a crouch directly in front of Seymour, holding a pair of revolvers. Within seconds, he'd pumped all twelve rounds into Seymour's chest... and then Ian landed behind the Guado, swinging Raiden-Ken with all the strength in his remaining arm.

* * *

Return to Ian's POV

* * *

"That power will never be yours, Seymour," I snarled through gritted teeth, and my blade sliced cleanly through his neck.

Maester Seymour Guado slowly toppled backwards, heading falling separately, and something eerie happened: though his head was severed, the mouth moved, speaking to the summoner. "Yuna... you would pity me now?" And then he was still.

"Good riddance, bastard." I straightened, and began to return my blade to its scabbard.

Rose's expression stopped me. "Ian... Behind you..."

Warned by her tone, I slowly turned. Standing behind me, weapon drawn, was the cyborg. "You again."

"Yes." She nodded. "It is time, Ian. This time, the battle will be to the death."

"At least tell me why," I said. "Why do you insist upon this duel?"

"If you defeat me, you will know. If I defeat you, you will know before the end."

I spun my blade. "I don't think so, cyborg. It ends here." Gathering my strength, I hurled myself forward, katana sweeping low in an attempt at a leg cut.

She parried, jumped, and chopped at my head. I blocked, rolled, and landed a solid hit on her left arm, causing sparks to fly. "That's good, Ian." Blocking and parrying my next flurry of attacks, she continued her running commentary. "Do you remember, Ian? The feel of battle... the clashing of bone and sinew?"

"I've never forgotten." I leapt over the cyborg's next attack, ducked a strike, and flung myself to on side to avoid a shuriken. "I was born on the battlefield, raised on the battlefield. Every day is a struggle to survive. Every breath I take may be my last. Battle is something from which I am never free." I backflipped, released my blade for an instant, tossed a shuriken, and reclaimed the sword before it could hit the floor. "Perhaps I was born to fight."

"Yes." The throwing star was batted aside with the cyborg's inhuman reflexes. "But there is more to the warrior than war, and more to the poet than poetry. The two must be one, for the price of freedom..."

"Is eternal vigilance." Even as I unleashed another attack, I frowned, for she had quoted my own clan's motto, and few outsiders knew it. "And the price of victory..."

"Is sacrifice." The cyborg nodded. "At last you begin to understand."

"Understand what?" The only thing I understood was that this cyborg had far greater knowledge of the tenets of the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi Clan of Ninja than any outsider should. "All that you have given me is riddles."

"But every riddle has a solution." And it was then that she made a fatal error, leaving herself open to attack as she drew back her blade...

"Who are you!?" I flung Raiden-Ken into the center of her chest and kicked the pommel, pinning her to the wall.

"At last..." she whispered. "It ends..." Her blade clattered to the floor, and she brought her hands to her helmet, slowly lifting it...

And I came face-to-face with the horrifying price of victory.

* * *

Switch to Ryan's POV

* * *

I took an involuntary step backward when I saw my brother's reaction to seeing his adversary's face; I had never seen Ian look so stunned and stricken. "N-no..." he moaned. "It... can't be..."

"Thank you, mon ami," the woman said weakly. Young, around Ian's age, she had jet-black, shoulder-length hair, and green eyes. "Thanks... to you... it finally... ends..."

"How...? You... you died... Seven years ago..." He sank to his knees. "What have I done...?"

"You have... set me free..." She coughed. "I was... taken from the battle... Neither truly alive, nor truly dead... Now, you have finally... freed me from this existence..." The woman seemed to gather her remaining strength. "In my exoskeleton... there is a data disk. I have not the time remaining to... tell you all you need to know... But the disk... contains everything." She coughed again, coughing up blood. "It is time... mon ami... I... am dying..."

"No... Jeanette... There must be something that can be done..."

"There isn't." She smiled. "I do not ask you not to grieve, Ian. But do not blame yourself. I died... in Kazakhstan, seven years ago... What I have been through since... is not living... I was an undying shadow... in a world of lights..." She held out her hand. "It was... good to see you again, mon ami... But now... I must go. Farewell..."

Ian grasped her hand tightly until the moment of death, and then he collapsed to the floor.

What he did next scared ten years off my life: he screamed, a high, mournful sound that scared the daylights out of everyone in earshot.

It scared Karen and I the worst, for we had never known Ian to display grief so openly. Even after our parents were murdered, the Dragoons who were with him from the time he first arrived in Endiness told me he never so much as shed a tear; he kept it all locked inside. For him to react so openly, and badly... This woman must have been very close to him at one time.

No one dared approach him, as he knelt on the floor beside "Jeanette's" body. When he finally stood, he was... different. More bitter, with the fires of vengeance in his eye, yet also with a weight upon his shoulders, and a sadness that I would never have thought him capable of. The man to whom death meant nothing, after killing dozens of people and surviving his own death, had been changed by the death of one woman.

Carefully, he withdrew his blade from her body, and spoke in a formal tone, in Japanese. "I have dishonored this blade, and myself," he said. "I may not wield it again. It shall remain in this place, marking the place where Jeanette Delacroix departed from this world. The blade Raiden-Ken shall remain in this place till the end of time, unless one truly worthy of the weapon claims it. But always shall it return to this place, and none shall remove it." He raised it, and sank the point firmly into the floor.

Ian carefully lifted the body of Jeanette Delacroix, cradling it in his arms, and turned to leave. "I'm sorry," he said without turning. "But there is something I must do, and I must leave for a time."

Rose nodded slowly. "I understand, Ian. Do what you must. We'll carry on while you're gone."

"Ryan," he continued, "you are in charge of the mission during my absence. I leave it in your hands."

"I won't fail you, Brother." I accepted the responsibility with a certain trepidation, but if Ian was leaving the mission in my hands, I would _not_ fail. Especially not after this occurrence, even if I didn't fully understand what was happening.

"I know you won't." Slowly, somberly, he walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Yuna asked, and Ian paused.

"I don't know," he said simply. "To the ends of the earth, if I have to." And then he was gone.

* * *

Following Ian's departure, Rose turned to me, clearly about to ask me what I knew about what had just happened. But before she could open her mouth, the door opened once more, and Trommel strode in, along with several guards. The ruckus had finally been noticed.

I noticed Karen looking disappointed, and when I raised an eyebrow, she mouthed, "I didn't get them all." Clearly, she was irritated by her failure to completely eliminate the Guado guards.

"What happened here?" Trommel demanded.

"It's not our fault!" Tidus said quickly. "Seymour attacked us. He's the bad guy!"

"You did this!?"

Auron ignored the exchange. "Yuna, send him."

Seymour's aide immediately blocked her path. "Stay away from him, traitors!" He and his minions picked up the body, and they filed out, Trommel giving us one last hateful look on the way out.

"I think this is our cue to get out of here," I said, _"right bloody now."_

"What have I done?" Wakka moaned.

I grabbed his arm. "You can have a theological crisis later, big guy. Right now we gotta get outta here. And Tidus, I now you've got a million questions about your Dragoon Spirit, but it'll have to wait."

"I know." He nodded firmly. "Let's go!"

* * *

Getting out was a little trickier than getting in; the puzzle in the Cloister of Trials had already been solved when we entered, but now it was in pieces once again.

On the other hand, it gave us some breathing space, and Rose and I stood in a corner while the others figured out the puzzle. "Who was she, Ryan?" she asked quietly.

"I... don't know," I admitted. "I'd never heard the name Jeanette Delacroix before. But she was obviously very close to Ian."

"Then how could you have avoided meeting her?"

"Well..." I shrugged. "It's not that big of a surprise. Until about six months prior to the Second Dragon Campaign beginning, I hadn't even seen Ian for about two years."

She raised her eyebrows. "What?"

"It was eight years ago," I began. "Ian was sixteen. That year, he was sent out West, carrying out various missions for the Clan overseas, while Karen and I stayed in Japan handling domestic missions. At the time, I had no idea what he was doing out there, but six years ago, we recovered Clan records from the dojo in Japan, so I now know that a lot of the time was spent hunting vampires. The weird thing is..." and I paused, gathering my thoughts "...his travels are well-documented. But only for the first three months. Then, instead of recording time, place, mission, and outcome, the files only give the dates and locations."

Rose frowned. "That's odd. So you have no idea what he was doing during the remaining time overseas?" I shook my head. "What was his mission just before the records become spotty?"

I thought back. "He was in Paris, chasing the vampire Francois Lafayette, distant relative of a hero of the American Revolution. He was still there for the first three months of the record blackout. Then he suddenly turned up in Costa Rica, of all places. For the next year and a half, he spent various amounts of time on a meandering path across the globe. From Costa Rica, he went to Washington D.C. in the U.S., then New York City, Kazakhstan, a cathedral in Ukraine, and then finally Kazakhstan again. Right after the Kazakhstan operation, he returned to Japan."

In the six and a half years we'd known her, Rose had learned enough about Earth to know that Kazakhstan and a Ukrainian cathedral were really out-of-the-way places, especially for a vampire-hunting ninja. "That doesn't make sense," she said finally. "A cathedral is about the last place you'd expect to find a vampire, and Kazakhstan...?" She shook her head again. "Did you ever ask him about it?"

"Once." I grimaced. "He gave me a really cold look, then drew his blade and pressed it to my throat. Ian told me that if I ever asked that again, he'd cut off my ears and staple me to the roof."

"And?"

"I _believed_ him."

Rose frowned suddenly. "Kazakhstan... Didn't Delacroix say that she was killed in Kazakhstan? And the name sounds French."

I nodded thoughtfully, stroking my chin. "Yeah, that's French, all right. You think the records were kept vague at Ian's request?"

"Either that, or he altered them himself when he retrieved them from the dojo," she concurred. "Now that I think about it, Ian insisted on recovered the files himself, and he took his time about it." Rose shrugged. "Somehow, though, I don't think we'll know the truth until he returns."

"I hope he hurries," I admitted. "I've known for a long time that I was nowhere near his equal in combat, and it makes me nervous when he's not around. Even without his arm."

Rose seemed to come to a decision. "The arm wasn't the only thing he lost," she said quietly. "He also lost the ring, and in the end, that may prove to be a greater loss."

I frowned. "What do you mean? Couldn't Charle just make another?"

"You don't understand, Ryan. That ring held more than just immortality. Didn't you ever notice how resistant Ian was to death?"

"Well... after Cassius showed up, I assumed it was vampiric healing at work."

She shook her head sharply. "No. That wouldn't protect him from beheading, or a thrust to the heart, and he's suffered both since acquiring the ring."

I gaped. "What? Then how is it he's still alive?"

"That ring was an ancient Wingly magic artifact, said to have been made by Magician Faust, at Melbu Frahma's order. It had within it the spell of immortality, but it covered more than just aging. As long as he had it, Ian was immune to disease, poison, and mortal wound. But it couldn't protect his arm, and so it was destroyed, though I'm not certain how." She sighed. "That's another I don't understand. If that woman was once so close to Ian, why did she injure him so badly, and then destroy the ring?"

"Maybe she knew something about it that we don't," I suggested. "Maybe that disk Ian's got will explain." Surprising even myself, I chuckled. "Now at least I know why Ian seemed so confident his pipe-smoking wouldn't give him cancer. But why didn't he tell us?"

"It was his ace in the hole. I have no doubt that you wouldn't willingly tell anyone, Ryan, but I also know that everyone has a breaking point, a point beyond which they cannot resist the pain. When that point is reached, a prisoner will tell his captives anything, just to stop the pain."

I considered this for a moment. "Well, I won't pretend it does wonderful things for my ego, but I guess I understand."

Our conversation was interrupted by Karen's yell of triumph. "Ryan, Rose, we got it! We can get out!"

We exchanged glances, then ran for the door.

* * *

The welcoming committee awaiting us in the main room of the temple left much to be desired. Trommel barred our path, along with about a dozen Guado guards and several from the temple itself.

"You may not pass," Trommel said, voice filled with anger. "Traitors must be punished."

"Just watch Jyscal's sphere!" Tidus said angrily. "That'll show you-"

"You mean this?" Trommel held it up, obviously preparing to break it. "Guado take care of Guado affairs," he said, and...

I got fed up with him and all his blasted Guado. I leapt into the air, somersaulting, and with a flurry of sword slashes I had not only cleared a path, but retaken the sphere. In an instant, I was out the door and running, the others right on my heals.

* * *

Author's note: Well, this chapter is certainly... interesting. It wraps up a few loose ends and introduces some more. As you may have already figured out, the next chapter or two (possibly three) will be from Ryan's perspective, as Ian takes care of his own private mission. Once he returns, all will be explained. And Victor d'Eltham will have a larger appearance later in the story... I'm just not sure where.

I certainly _hope_ this is a good chapter; I lost quite enough sleep getting it done this fast.

Songwind, as for the arm, I can only say wait until Ian returns.

Translations: "Kotonashi kadan, nakamadoushi," translates as "Nothing drastic, comrades"; "Yabuwotsutsuitehebiwodasu", that thoroughly unwieldy and unpronounceable word, means "Let sleeping dogs lie"; "Temae kichigai" is, roughly, "You're mad."

I think that covers the notes for this chapter; read it and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark


	14. Chapter 14: Symphony of the Night

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Victor d'Eltham

* * *

"You know," I said conversationally as we ran, "I'm beginning to really dislike Guado."

"That makes two of us, Bro," Karen said, firing a pair of .45 slugs over her shoulder from her Colt Government Model 1911. "At least Ian eighty-sixed Seymour."

"We wouldn't be runnin' if he hadn't done that," Wakka protested. "He killed a _Maester_, yah!?"

I rolled my eyes. _Not again._ I reached into a pocket and withdrew an interesting little device that was shaped somewhat like a gun, but where a gun had an opening at the end for a bullet, this had a flat end, yellow- and black-striped. "Wakka, now is not the time. But if you persist, I will use this handy little device, which is called a Taser, and _carry_ you out of here. Or, better yet, leave you to those Guado. Do we understand each other?"

"Hate to interrupt, Ryan, but duck!"

I hurled myself forward as Karen pulled a hand grenade from a pocket, pulled the pin, and tossed it at the pursuing Guado. "You know, Sis," I shouted over the explosion, "ninja aren't normally supposed to go around blowing stuff up! We're _stealth_ warriors, remember!?"

"Yeah, well," she retorted, "ninja also aren't normally chased by psychotic aliens after their leader goes bonkers and leaves them to fend for themselves!"

"You know Ian; he's always got an agenda."

* * *

Given how fast we were running, it didn't take us long to reach the area where we had been using snowmobiles earlier. But the Guado had a surprise waiting for us. "What is that!?"

"That" had four arms, looked vaguely like an ape, had two Guado protecting it, and was really, really ugly.

Oh, yeah; it was trying to kill us, too.

I yanked out my big revolvers and put .44 Magnum slugs into the skulls of the Guado, killing them instantly. Then the ape-thing smacked me with both right arms.

And you know, ice feels a whole lot like slippery concrete when you land on it really hard. It felt like I'd broken my back.

I tried to stand. "Arrgh!" My limbs refused to cooperate; I _had_ broken my back.

But we still had a healer with us. "Curaga!" Yuna called up, twirling her staff. I gasped in relief as the bones in my spinal cord knitted.

"Thanks, Yuna." I leapt forward, picked up my fallen guns and holstered them, reached back for my sword...

And that was when the fiend smacked the ice, creating a nice, big hole that just happened to be right under our feet.

"Where's a helicopter when you need one!?" I heard Karen yell, and then we dropped...

* * *

By the time I regained consciousness, I had the idea that the entire world was out to get me; I guessed the Great Ghu, god of the ceiling (if he existed) had decided I hadn't been ignoring him properly of late.

In any case, I had one killer headache.

"Hey! He's awake!" Rikku ran over, jumping about. "Are you okay!?"

I sat up and rubbed my head. "I will be if you stop shouting in my face." Blinking, I glanced about. "Where in blazes are we, anyway?"

"Under the ice, I guess." She glanced around, apparently making sure nobody else was in earshot. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead." Whether or not I could _answer_ of course, depended on how intact my gray matter was after dropping two hundred feet and landing on my head.

She crouched on the cold ground next to me. "I was just wondering. You guys have those Dragoons Spirits and guns and stuff, so why didn't Ian transform against that cyborg?"

I smiled. "Well, my friend, that's a somewhat complicated thing. Ian goes by a strange honor code, based on the tenets of the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi, that the rest of us don't entirely understand. In this particular case, I gather that he felt himself honor-bound to finish the battle without such assists, and he was also trying _not_ to kill her, at least at first." I shook my head. "I don't know who she was, but Jeannette Delacroix must have been someone very important to him."

"Umm." She considered this in silence for a time. "I guess I can understand," she said finally. "Kinda. But what were those sayings they were quoting at each other?"

"The tenets of our old clan." I thought back to my training, so many years ago. "'The price of victory is sacrifice'; 'There is more to the warrior than war, and more to the poet than poetry. The two must be one, for the price of freedom is eternal vigilance'. 'The price of living is loss'; and one that has been a subject for much meditation for him: 'When all is done, it is not to die- It is to die well.'" I shrugged. "My brother has never been the most cheerful of people, and he's spent a lot of time dwelling on death. Not that of others; only twice have I seen him the least bit bothered by killing, and those were extreme cases. No, he thinks about his own death. He's looked it in the face so many times over the years that I think, from the time he returned from Kazakhstan until he and Rose became involved, that survival was all he cared about."

"What about now?"

"I... don't know," I said slowly. "I have _never_ seen Ian act so impulsively. If I had to guess... it's revenge that's driving him now. And believe me, when he's out for revenge, get the blazes out of his way; I hear that when he was in Germany, chasing Draco von Schneider, those who knew of his mission called him Racher."

"What's that mean?"

"Revenger. To this day, I'm not precisely sure why Ian hated von Schneider so much; it could just be that he was tired of the bloodsucker showing up so much."

Rikku nodded. "Yeah, he really does hate vampires. What have they done to him to inspire such enmity?"

"Again, I'm not precisely sure. I remember six years ago, on The Moon That Never Sets, Albert speculated that it was because both of our ancestral bloodlines have fought against vampires for centuries, but Ian said that there was more to it than that." I shrugged. "When Cassius turned up, he said that he was true reason, but I'm inclined to think that there was even more to it. I can understand that causing a lot of _fear,_ but I would think it would have to be something different to have caused such intense hatred. I don't know what, though."

"Maybe he'll tell you when he gets back."

"Maybe." I stood. "Hope that answers your questions, my friend. Now I need to consult with Karen and Rose."

* * *

I strode over to my companions, noting on the way by that the Spirans were conferring amongst themselves. "So, Rose," I said. "Where do we go from here? Yuna and her Guardians seem to be talking about 'facing the punishment for our transgressions'. I don't believe we've transgressed; after all Seymour attacked _us._ But maybe we should go with them, keep them out of trouble."

Rose shook her head. "That's your call, Ryan."

I blinked. "What do you mean, _my_ call? You're the one Ian trusts the most in the entire universe; shouldn't _you_ decide?"

"No," she said firmly. "Ian specifically entrusted the mission to you, Ryan. Until he returns, you're in command of the mission, and the team. Where we go from here is _your_ decision."

I felt something akin to panic at the idea of being in command. _This is crazy I've never commanded anything it's always been Ian in charge what the blazes am I gonna do I'm not up to this-_

My panicky thoughts came to a halt, and I took a deep breath. _If Ian didn't think I was ready, he'd have left Rose in charge. But if -when- Ian gets back, I'm going to tell him in no uncertain terms that I have no desire to ever command anything whatsoever. Making life-and-death decisions has never been my style; I prefer worrying about nothing more than _how_ to kill someone appropriately, not _when_ it's appropriate_.

"Okay," I said in a calm tone as I opened my eyes. "We go with them. And maybe put a stop to the travesty that the Yevon priesthood will no doubt inflict upon Yuna and her Guardians."

* * *

Flanked by Rose and Karen, I strode over to the Spirans. "Have you decided where you're going?"

"We must face the consequences of our transgressions," Lulu said. "We will go to Bevelle, and face the maesters of Yevon."

"Yeah; I don't like it, but we killed a maester," Wakka said. "We gotta face our punishment."

"Are you guys... coming with us?" Rikku asked hopefully.

I nodded. "Yeah." I swept my gaze across the group, thinking to myself that this was the kind of thing Ian would do. "I don't believe we've transgressed, since we did act in self-defense, and I don't intend to submit to any kind of trial. But it was Ian's belief that the best way to accomplish our mission was to safeguard Yuna on her journey, and on a more immediate level, I believe it is the right thing, the only _honorable_ thing, to do." At my slight nod, Karen reached into her pack and withdrew a sphere. "And with this, we might have a chance of convincing the remaining maesters that we did the right thing."

"Jyscal's sphere?"

"Correct, Auron. I retrieved it because I was sick and tired of Trommel and all his wacky-haired bunch, and I intend to use it." I fixed my gaze on the big ex-Blitzball player. "Got a problem with that, Wakka?"

He clearly did, but even if he hadn't been scared of me after the Russian Roulette incident, he wouldn't have responded, for we saw something above us, in the unfrozen waters below the temple. "That's Sin!" Rikku exclaimed. "What's it doing!?"

"Listening," Auron said. "To the Song of the Fayth."

"It's passive," I noted. An idea began to form, and I glanced at my empress-of-explosives (also know simply as "The Mad Bomber") sister. "Karen, I don't suppose you've got anything appropriate for demolishing something that size...?"

She shook her head. "Sorry Ryan," she said wryly, "I left the big stuff at the dojo. Even my M-79, let alone the SEMTEX, or the hydrogen bomb.."

My eyes narrowed. "Tell me you're joking about the hydrogen bomb."

Karen grinned. "Nope; not sure exactly, but I gather Ian has some high-powered connections to various militaries, and one of them slipped him The Bomb. And, of course, there's the Clan's R9 Devyatka base on Earth..."

I jerked around in surprise. "What the- R9 Devyatka!? What are you talking about?"

It was her turn to be surprised. "Didn't you know? The Clan got hold of an old Soviet missile silo seven years back; I think it was just before Ian got back from the West. It came complete with a fully-functional R9 Devyatka missile."

"Where is it!?" I demanded.

"Kazakhstan, I think... Ryan, are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure..." I shook my head. Kazakhstan? Perhaps now some of the pieces were coming together.

"What's a Devyatka?" Rose asked, frowning. "I don't think I've heard the term before."

"No reason you should have," I assured her. "The R9 Devyatka was a Soviet nuclear ICBM during the Cold War, and I'd heard they were all dismantled more than a decade ago."

"Well, this one's live," Karen said. "I don't know the exact location, but I did visit it once, during explosives training about a month before the Second Dragon Campaign. Everything was intact, minus a few computer mainframes that were full of bullet holes, and quite a bit of dried blood. However the Clan got hold of it, it wasn't pretty." She frowned. "The weird thing is, Ian was supposed to come with me, for some kind data search, but he refused. In fact, he disappeared for two weeks."

Something was definitely up. "Something is definitely up," I murmured. "There must be a solution to the puzzle, but not all the pieces have been revealed yet." I finally shrugged. "Anyway, back to the original point, do you have _anything_ that could seriously affect Sin?"

She reached into her bag of all things BANG and rummaged. "Well," Karen said finally, "I do have some C4. If we had some way of delivering it to the target, it might work, but even then I doubt it would be sufficient."

Suddenly, the ice beneath us began to shake, and I managed to shout "A moot point, I think!" before a crack swallowed us up...

* * *

I don't know how long I was out, but when I awakened, it was daylight on a sand dune, and I was hot as blazes. "Ittaizentai...?"

"Beats me, Brother," Karen said, standing higher on the dune. "Last thing I remember is being in a _cold_ place; my system didn't react too well to the sudden temperature shift."

"Where are Rose and the others?"

She shrugged. "Beats me. Rose was here when I came to, but she headed off to scout the area by air; I have no idea at all where the Spirans are."

"First things first," I decided. "Let's find Rose; our Dragoon Spirits will lead the way once we're close enough. Until then, we fly."

"Right." In a flare of light too bright look at, she transformed into the Dragoon of the Starburst Dragon, whose might had shaken Melbu Frahma himself.

I had to admit, as I transformed, that her magic was more powerful than mine, in terms of raw destructive force. On the other hand, I was able to warp time in such ways as to literally drive men insane.

"All this desert makes you wish we had Meru with us, doesn't it?" Karen commented as we flew. "At least she could cool us off."

"Ah, but then we'd have her practical jokes to deal with. Besides, just imagine what it would be like she and Rikku got together in the same place." I shuddered.

My sister, on the other hand, grinned. "Aw, that'd be great! Really exciting!"

"You can keep your excitement and stuff it into a wormhole," I muttered.

* * *

We found Rose perched on another sand dune some distance away, staring down at a war zone.

"What's going on here...?" I whispered, watching as fiends tore through what appeared to be a machina city... with Guado aiding them wholeheartedly.

"I think that is the city of the Al Bhed," Rose said without turning. "The Guado have invaded, and unleashed fiends to aid them."

I stared at the carnage and felt sick; the violence in and of itself didn't bother me; squeamish people didn't make it as assassins. But the sheer, senseless slaughter of innocents... "Rikku's gonna be devastated when she sees this, poor girl..." Karen glanced at me strangely, but I ignored it. "Come on; if Yuna and her Guardians wound up in this desert, they'll be in there. And besides..." I drew the Soul Cleaver from its scabbard and glared down at the marauding Guado. "I won't sit by and watch those inhuman bastards massacre people!"

Without waiting to see if my companions were following me, I took wing once more, swooping down on the enemy. "She stoops to conquer!" I heard Karen call out, and on the heels of that shout, I cast a time spell, sucking a Guado and his minions into what was essentially a tiny black hole.

I don't remember much of the next few minutes; I just have snatches of violent death, as I swung and chopped and thrust, killing Guado after Guado, fiend after fiend, moving with ruthless economy of motion, giving neither mercy nor quarter.

When I came back to myself, my blood-red Dragoon armor was truly blood-red, soaked and stained with the blood of my victims. I felt no remorse; those freaks had brought it on themselves by their brutal actions, and to this day I do not regret it.

I felt only very tired, and I wondered if the killing would ever end.

* * *

We soon ran into Tidus and the others, themselves searching for Yuna. "You're safe!" Rikku called out, face showing her obvious relief. "We weren't sure if you guys were okay!"

"We're fine," I said wearily.

Wakka looked critically at my blood-spattered body. "What happened to you, yah?"

Rikku took note of it as well; hard not to, since my normally-black outfit was almost completely red. "Are you okay? What's all this blood...?"

I shook my head, also wearily. "You don't want to know, Rikku. I will say only that this blood does not belong to me." I sighed. "You are not ready for the sight of what I left behind."

"Did you find Yuna?" Tidus broke in.

"No," Rose answered; I was beyond speech. "We thought she was with you."

"If she's here, she'll be in the Summoner's Sanctum," Rikku said. "Follow me!"

And follow her we did, to a large chamber where we saw several summoners, including Dona and the Isaru, the man who had originally warned us of the summoner disappearances, back in Djose.

"What are all these summoners doing here?" Tidus asked. "Were the Al Bhed behind the kidnapping all along?"

Rikku took a deep breath, obviously struggling to keep her voice from breaking. "Yes," she said in a weak voice.

"Why?" He looked at the bleak faces around him. "Why don't you want the summoners to complete their pilgrimages?" He looked as if he was dreading the answer.

"Yunie will die, you know!?" Rikku finally shouted. "She'll summon the Final Aeon, and it'll kill her, too!"

Tidus staggered. "What...? No, it can't be!"

"It is," Auron said softly.

"Why did you hide it from me!?" he screamed.

"We weren't hiding it," Wakka said quietly.

"It was just too hard to say," Lulu finished, eyes downcast.

I turned away as Tidus fell to his knees and screamed, walking away as his sound of pain echoed through the place the Al Bhed had called Home. _We all have our sorrows, Tidus, our painful burdens. Even I, though I suspect it pails compared to yours or Ian's..._

"We'll hold them off," I heard Dona say, as I walked with Karen and Rose toward the vehicle that lay before us, the airship the Al Bhed had resurrected from its watery grave. "It's the least we can do for those who protected us."

Rikku fell into step with us. "We'd better get aboard. My father said that they're going to lift off soon; we ran into him just before we met up with you." She sniffed. "We're... going to have to blow up Home, with the fiends and Guado inside. Then we'll look for Yunie."

As Tidus' wail echoed behind us, we walked into the airship, thinking of our sorrows...

* * *

Author's note: Another chapter done, and pretty quick, too. Soon, all shall be revealed about Ian's hidden past, and who the mysterious "Jeannette Delacroix" once was.

You are quite correct, Red Eyed, Divine Dragoon77415; it will be revealed in the course of the story. I shall not do so myself.

Songwind, as it happens the Asymmetry Theory is from Metal Gear Solid (I've played a _lot_ of games on Sony systems). I don't know for sure if the theory exists, but the game is rather well-researched, so it seemed logical to me. As I'm a big MGS fan, you'll see other references to it throughout my writing, including the cyborg ninja.

Seriyu-the-ice-dragon, as you can see I explained that within the chapter. I confess, however, that it simply had not occurred to me prior to your mentioning it.

Translation: "Ittaizentai" means "What in the world".

That covers things, I think; read and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark


	15. Chapter 15: Lament of Innocence

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, and Victor d'Eltham

* * *

The airship felt _ancient_.

That's the only word I can describe the feeling as. From what I gathered, this ship had been underwater for a thousand years, until the Al Bhed recovered it, just after recovering Tidus.

It was also crowded; it looked like every Al Bhed who survived the massacre at Home had gathered aboard the ship.

And, to top it all off, I had no idea where we were going. But Rikku apparently did. "Follow me!"

She took off running, and Karen, Rose and I followed, bemused. "Where are we going?"

"To the Bridge!" she replied without pausing. "My dad will be up there, getting ready for take off."

I paused as a thought struck me. "Karen, stay by the hatch and make sure the other Guardians get aboard safely. And take out any fiends or Guado that get too close."

She nodded. "Not that there should be many enemies left; not after your little rampage." Karen split off and headed back the way we came.

On the Bridge, Rikku listened as her father, Cid, barked orders in Al Bhed to the crew. "We're lifting off," she translated. "Are Tidus and the others on board?"

I closed my eyes, concentrating; I wasn't as sensitive as Ian, but I could usually sense familiar auras. "They're fine," I said after a moment. "They just boarded and are headed out way."

"Just in time!"

Indeed, the doors above the airship opened, and sand poured in as we lifted into the open air. "You sure this thing is safe?" I asked quietly. "It seems to violate all the laws of physics!"

"Don't worry; we've used all kinds of machina from the ancients... though this _is_ the first time any of us have flown an airship," she admitted.

The other Guardians skidded into the room just as the ship reached the surface. "What's going on?" Tidus asked.

"Just watch," I advised.

Cid gave some more orders, and the other Al Bhed were visibly grief-stricken by them. "Okay, I give," Karen said. "What's up?"

"We're gonna blow up our Home," Rikku whispered.

"With what?" Wakka demanded.

Cid turned. "With one of the forbidden machina!" He began to lead his crew in the Song of the Fayth.

* * *

I was impressed when the Al Bhed airship's flanks sprouted missile tubes, and even more so when the huge salvo launched from them.

When they detonated, I had to shield my eyes from the glare, and I was nearly tossed from my feet when the blast front caught up with us. "Ugh!"

I had to shake my head to clear it, and when I looked up once more, the Al Bhed city was in total ruin, and Wakka was awkwardly trying to cheer up Rikku. "Hey, don't look so sad, yah? Just think of it like happy fireworks!"

Rikku glared, but before she could retort angrily, I drew my Taser and shot the big idiot full of electricity for his insensitive remark.

As Wakka lay on the deck, twitching, she glanced at me. "Thanks, Ryan. I know he didn't mean it that way, but..."

"He still shouldn't have said it." I flashed a grin. "Be glad Ian's not here; he might have stopped me from zapping him."

"Or you might have shot him, _then_ Wakka?" She managed a smile.

"Not likely." I shook my head. "The only time I ever got the drop on Ian was when I was under the control of the Soul Slayer, a thoroughly evil sword that has since been destroyed. Since then, I haven't hit him with so much as a snowball. I'd the swear the guy is psychic."

We were interrupted as Tidus advanced purposely toward Cid. "Where's Yuna?" he demanded. "Tell me where she is!" He grabbed the Al Bhed leader...

And was promptly hurled across the room. "We're looking!" Cid replied, glaring. "I'm going to find my niece, and make her stop this pilgrimage of hers!"

"Even against her will?" Auron asked quietly.

"Better than a dog's death." He looked defiantly at the Legendary Guardian. "And I'll take down anyone who don't agree!"

"You're the captain," Auron said agreeably.

I did notice, however, that he didn't say he would actually abide by it.

"How will you locate her?" Lulu asked.

Cid waved at a sphere hanging in the center of the chamber. "Another ancient machina. We'll find her soon enough."

"A scanner of some sort," I noted. "Looks like these 'Ancients' were more advanced than Earth. At least in some ways; I doubt they ever put a man on the moon... or moons, whichever..."

* * *

Some time later, an image appeared in the sphere: Yuna, wearing a wedding dress in a strange, ostentatious place, along with... Seymour.

"What's Yuna wearing?" Wakka asked, perplexed.

"It's called a wedding dress," Lulu said, rolling her eyes.

"What's Seymour doing there?" Rikku asked, voicing my thoughts. "I thought Ian killed him!"

"Seymour _is_ dead," Auron said. "As dead as Jyscal was."

I winced. "An unsent. Just what we don't need. I guess that's what Yuna's doing there, though; getting close enough to send him..."

"Where is that?"

"That's Bevelle," Cid said. "And they've got the strongest defenses anywhere. We can't get in there!"

"We're going to rescue Yuna," Tidus said in an odd, firm tone of voice. "That's all that matters. I don't care how hard it is!"

Cid stared at him for a minute, then burst out laughing. "I like your attitude, kid!" He turned back to the pilot, Rikku's brother (named, of all things, Brother). "All right! Bevelle, here we come!"

* * *

In preparation for our arrival, the nine of us headed aft, toward the elevator that led to the top deck of the ship. The area seemed to be some kind of observation room, judging from all the windows, and I welcomed the chance to relax for awhile.

"I wonder how Ian's doing," Karen said, staring out. "I think we were unconscious for a couple days after Sin showed up under Macalania; there's a lot of ground he could have covered."

"I think he's probably somewhere on Earth," I said after a time. "Endiness doesn't have the technology for that cyborg, and from her accent and name, she was French. Beyond that, I haven't a clue. Earth's a big place."

"I'd like to see it sometime," Rikku said, sounding almost wistful. "It sounds nice."

"That could be arranged," I said, thinking. "Assuming the spatial anomaly that got us here isn't temporary, we could get you from here to Endiness, and the Dark Mirror, which grants us passage back to Earth, is still at the Shrine." Glancing out the window, I sighed. "I don't go back there much anymore; seven years ago the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi were virtually wiped out by Sandora's cowardly attack; and the year before, when Ian was still overseas, the Hideoshi family was eliminated when a neighboring clan, the Fukai Maunten, launched an attack. There isn't really much left out there for me."

We were interrupted as Cid's voice came over the ship's intercom. "Hey! There's something coming at us to port!"

I was across the deck before I'd even realized I was moving. "Obutsu! Ittaizentai!?"

"What is it, Ryan?" Karen rushed over, and then she too saw it. "Rose, you gotta see this!"

Ian's fianc's eyes widened as she spotted the creature swiftly approaching. "It cannot be! They're all dead!"

"Guess this particular Dragon didn't get the message," I said grimly, staring at the blue, winged shape slicing through the sky. "We need to get topside, _now_."

"What is it?" Auron asked.

"Something from Endiness that's supposed to be extinct," Karen replied. "A Dragon."

"Leave this to us," Rose said. "We are Dragoons, you are not. You can't defeat it."

"Wait a minute!" Tidus protested. "I've got one of those things, too!"

"Save it," I advised. "This is not the battle for someone who doesn't yet know how to use his powers properly. I know you did well against Seymour's aeon, but the fact remains that you have no training in Dragoon, or aerial, combat."

"I'm going with you!" Rikku said unexpectedly. "I can help! And besides," she added, with a strange expression on her face, "I... feel something."

She seemed at a loss for words to describe it, but I glanced at her speculatively and nodded slowly. "All right. But be careful; at the speeds were moving at, if you fall, you'll be far behind us by the time we can even try to catch you." Without further comment, I drew my blade and rushed for the elevator, my three companions on my heels.

* * *

Cid obviously didn't need to be told to keep some distance between the airship and the Dragon; he kept it just close enough for us to reach it, and matched speed with it.

"Okay," I said as we stood on the deck, already in our winged armor. "Atakku!"

"As if we didn't know," I heard Karen mutter, and then we were off, wings shedding magic as we swooped in on our target.

"Any idea what this beast might be called?" I called to Rose.

"Well, it's sapphire," she said, shrugging. "Other than that..."

"Then we call it the Sapphire Dragon," I decided. "Jade, Violet, Golden, Sapphire... it fits."

I dodged to one side as a grenade arced past and struck the Dragon on the nose. Rikku's work, no doubt, though it mostly just irritated the beast.

Then the battle was joined, and there was a flurry of stabs, cuts, and biting, as two ninja, an ancient warrior, and a Dragon exchanged blows, with the occasional grenade of various types thrown in.

"Big winged nasty to starboard!" Karen called out a short time into the battle. "Looks like the Guardians have it under control." She dropped beneath a claw, kicked its mouth, and stabbed it in the chin.

"Good, 'cause we're busy," I replied. Then I was promptly hit in the chest by a flailing Dragon limb, and I slammed backwards into the airship.

"I'm really mad now!" Rikku suddenly shouted, and some kind of big, nasty bomb sailed overhead and straight toward the Dragon.

And, since the big beast wasn't very smart, it ate the bomb. The resulting explosion blew bits of Dragon innards careening across the sky.

"Eww," Karen muttered. "Hate to think what kind of rain they're getting down there."

My attention was elsewhere, however, as a sapphire sphere drifted over to Rikku. "No way," I breathed. "Another in this group?"

She looked awed as it fastened itself around her neck. "Is this...?"

"Yeah," I managed. "That's the Dragoon Spirit of the Sapphire Dragon. You're one of us, now." I picked myself up off the deck, just in time to see Karen pulling another crazy stunt.

The winged fiend that had shown up during our battle with the Dragon, which I later learned was the Guardian Worm, Evrae (whatever that means), might have been perplexed as a winged human landed on it. If so, it wasn't for long, because the C4 plastic explosive she planted on its back detonated, showering even more gore on the ground below.

I held my head in my heads. "Okay, just shoot me. This day is getting _way_ too strange."

* * *

Our entry into Bevelle wasn't exactly the stuff of SEAL teams; it was more like an air strike. Eight of the Guardians skated down thick cables, while I led Karen, Rose, and now Rikku through the air, slamming hard into the walkway where this "wedding" was being held.

Above us, the airship broke off; it was taking a beating, and I nearly laughed as I saw Yevonites firing automatic rifles. So much for the teachings.

"Hang on, Yuna," Tidus whispered. "Here we come."

And nothing was getting in our way. Karen and I took the fore, using our blades to literally cut a path toward the place where Seymour, Yuna, Kinoc, and Mika awaited. The red carpet grew more so, as the blood was spilled.

We ran into a definite snag when we reached the last set of stairs, though: Half a dozen warrior monks, all of them armed with either rifles or flamethrowers. Even ninja couldn't move fast enough to kill them all.

"So much for your teachings," Karen mocked, using the only weapon left to her: words. "Do they only apply to lesser mortals?"

"Something like that," Kinoc allowed. "There are certain exceptions. Now drop your weapons, or we'll kill you all where you stand."

And that was when the black-armored shape fell out of the sky into their midst, and I groaned. "Not another!" The figure wore the same sort of armor as the cyborg ninja, except this one was male, and his exoskeleton was black.

"Fire!" Kinoc immediately ordered, and a barrage of bullets sprayed at the figure. But this ninja had other plans; he drew the katana that was strapped to his back, and moved faster than I'd ever seen anyone move before, deflecting bullets with the blade.

As the monks stopped firing, faces masks of disbelief, he slowly shook his head. "Bad idea," a soft voice emanating from the helmet said. "My turn."

I stood still, frozen with shock, as the black-clad ninja became a blur of motion, slashing and cutting and thrusting with his blade. Blood sprayed as the Yevon monks were slaughtered, and when it was over, one monk remained.

He didn't remain for long, though, and I suspected the stranger had deliberately left him alive for the dramatic effect he pulled off next. In a motion almost too fast to be seen, he sheathed his blade, drew an autopistol from its holster at his thigh, and fired a single shot into the monk's head.

As the explosively decapitated body dropped to the floor, the helmet turned to Seymour. "You again? Can't you even die right?"

Yuna was standing behind the unsent maester, obviously shocked and frightened by this turn of events. "W-who are you?" she asked, voice trembling.

The ninja brought his free hand to the side of his helmet and touched a control. Instantly, the faceplate went transparent, and my bother Ian smiled at her. "It's only me, nothing to worry about. You, on the other hand..." He looked back at Seymour. "I can only assume you've become an unsent, since I removed your head pretty thoroughly."

"Indeed," he admitted. "I confess to be somewhat puzzled by your appearance, Takahari. I had heard that you lost your arm, yet here it is. Were the reports mistaken?"

"I'm not inclined to engage in small talk with you, bastard, but I'll say this: the reports _were_ accurate." He looked back at us. "I know you guys are just dying to know what's been going on, but we don't have time to chat." His gaze flicked over to Yuna. "I'll leave the dead guy to you; in the meantime..."

Without further ado, Ian hurled himself at Maester Mika, causing them both to fall off the high tower. "Ian!" Rikku shouted, surprised.

"Don't worry about him," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Ian can take care of himself."

* * *

Switch to Ian's POV

* * *

At the time, I was unaware of my brother's reassuring comment to Rikku, but it was quite accurate. I was doing my level best to decapitate the Yevon priesthood, since I assumed that the others would be more than capable of dealing with Kinoc and the unsent Seymour.

I didn't yet know that Mika was an unsent himself, of course.

"How do you like this, Mika?" I said through gritted teeth as we fell. "No more lies, no more useless sacrifices, no more lethal pilgrimages; nothing but the absolute certainty of your own death?"

The man seemed remarkably calm. "But by doing something this rash, you have condemned yourself to death, as well. You cannot possibly survive the fall."

"Bet me," I replied, and released my grip on the maester. With my hands now free, I changing the trajectory of my fall and skimmed the side of the building, my exoskeletal suit protecting me from things like road burn or whatever its building-side equivalent was.

Using my new right arm, I punched a hole into the tower and held on, aborting my fall with a suddenness that was somewhat painful.

Nothing like the pain in my heart, though. Not after what I had learned during my recent travels.

* * *

Once I'd gained entrance into Bevelle Temple once again, it didn't take me long to figure out where I should go; if the others had gotten away, they probably would have headed for the Chamber of the Fayth, so that's where I headed.

A lot of corridors and several corpses later, I found myself in front of the Chamber... just in time to meet the group of warrior monks that were in the process of capturing my compatriots. "You shouldn't have come, niisan," Ryan sighed as he spotted me.

Kinoc, leading the monks, turned and smiled, knowing he held the upper hand. "Well, well. If it isn't the interloper who tried to kill Mika, and deprived Seymour of his head." His monks turned their rifles on me. "You may be able to deflect bullets, but if you do it in here, they're quite likely to hit your own friends. So be sensible, and drop your weapons. Now."

I considered arguing, then shrugged, smiled, and set my blade and gun on the floor. "That's it. I'm disarmed."

Kinoc wasn't stupid. "I think we'll just make sure of that. Remove your armor."

I nodded approvingly. He wasn't up to my level, but Kinoc did know his business. "As you wish." Tapping a few controls, I deactivated the exoskeleton and proceeded to remove it, leaving me standing there in my old ninja gi. "Shall we go on to the prison cells you've no doubt prepared for us?"

He nodded, apparently satisfied. "Yes. Come with me at once." He turned away, then glanced over his shoulder. "After you've been locked up awhile, you'll be brought before the maesters for trial." Kinoc turned to one of his flunkies. "Put the ninja leader in a separate cell. He's dangerous enough alone; put him in with others, and they could cause us problems. And station two guards just outside."

I couldn't have been happier with his arrangements.

* * *

I bided my time in that cell, waiting a half hour before I made my move. Then I gathered my strength, closed my eyes, and walked straight through the wall.

My guards were, to say the least, astonished when I walked out of the cell and into their midst. "What the-" The first guard's shout died in a gurgle as the narrow, three-inch throwing knife appeared in his throat.

"You forgot to search my ankle sheath," I said conversationally as I advanced on his partner. "Oh, yeah," I added, slamming him into the wall with my right hand, hard enough to shatter bones, "my right arm's bionic." With a casual twist, I broke his neck, then stepped back and surveyed my handiwork. "Haven't lost my touch," I said to myself in satisfaction. "Now, where's my exoskeleton?"

I quickly came to the conclusion that Kinoc's warrior monks weren't the most professional soldiers in existence; my exoskeleton was just lying on the floor nearby. I shook my head at the incompetence. Years earlier, during a vampire hunt in the former Soviet Union, I'd been kidnapped by a group of ex-Spetsnaz men; they'd stripped me completely and stuffed me in a cell that seemed to have been meant for a raccoon of other small animal, and locked up my gear. Only my knowledge of _kuji_ and the assistance of my traveling partner, a woman now dead, allowed me to escape.

With a feeling of profound satisfaction, I reassembled the armor, activated it, and put my weaponry back in place: Heckler & Koch USP Tactical with LAM, recoil compensator, and suppressor; my new katana, with a most interesting past; and various other lethal odds and ends.

"Okay, Maesters," I said softly. "Here I come."

* * *

I was more careful this time about making my entrance; I knew simply bursting in on the trial would be a wonderful way of either getting myself killed or captured, and having been through both at one time or another, caution came naturally.

Hiding just outside the courtroom, I listened as Yuna pleaded her case to Kinoc, Seymour, and the Ronso maester, Kelk... and Mika. I cursed vilely to myself as I realized that he was already an unsent, just like Seymour.

I winced sympathetically as Yuna realized the truth behind the pilgrimages, and snorted in bitter amusement when Kelk seemed the only maester at all bothered by Seymour's patricide. _So all the Maesters of Yevon are corrupt... Yet more proof that absolute power corrupts absolutely. As if I needed any more, after Doel and Melbu Frahma._

My gaze sharpened with interest when Ryan produced his surprise evidence: Jyscal's sphere, recorded just before his death, and evidently recovered at some time by Ryan from Seymour's aide-de-camp. But, since the maesters obviously already knew of the facts Jyscal spelled out, and had no problems with them, it fell flat. If the sphere was to be of any use, it would be before the people, not the rulers.

At last, the trial came to an end, and the sentence was pronounced. "You will be brought to the Via Purifico," Kinoc stated. "If you survive, you will be proven innocent. If you do not..."

May God preserve the righteous, I thought. _The old idea, rather common among theocracies, that if the accused is truly innocent, God will ensure that no harm comes to them. Unfortunately, I'm not a big believer in Divine Intervention that's quite that direct. Not since ancient times._ I had my religious beliefs, but they couldn't be farther from the Yevonites. Though I supposed that Aztec practices were just a _little_ worse. I never did approve of human sacrifice...

* * *

After my comrades had been led out of the court and taken to the "Via Purifico", whatever it was, I quickly decided to free my siblings and Rose first. With four stealth-trained warriors on the loose, freeing the others would be that much easier.

It did not surprise me that they weren't very surprised by my intervention. "I was wondering when you were going to show up, Boss," Ryan said after I dispatched the guards. "When you didn't show up at that kangaroo court, I figured you'd gotten out." He pointed at my armor. "But what's with the cyborg getup?"

"And what did you learn while you were gone?" Rose added.

"I'll explain once we're out of Bevelle," I said. "Not safe here."

"Was it good, bad, or ugly?" Karen pressed.

I turned. "A mixture of bad and ugly," I said, and led the way toward the exit of the Via Purifico without another word.

We reunited with Yuna and her Guardians at the end. "Ryan! You're okay!" I raised an eyebrow and shot my brother a speculating look at Rikku's shout, and the eyebrow rose farther when the young Al Bhed threw herself at him. _Well, well, well. I wonder what's going on with those two?_ I suppressed a chuckle at Ryan's expression; he seemed just as surprised. _There'll be time enough to straighten everything out once we're out of here_, I thought.

"Now that we have made it safely this far, we must hurry out of Bevelle," Auron said, breaking up the reunion. "I do not trust the maesters to let us go simply because we have 'proven' our innocence."

"Quite right, Sir Auron."

I whirled with superhuman speed as Seymour's voice reached us. "What have you done now, you bastard?" I demanded, seeing Kinoc's body upright before him, with the boneless quality of a corpse. "Now you've killed him, too?"

"I have set him free," Seymour said, shaking his head. "He wanted power, and the more he got. The more paranoid he became. He was fearful of losing his power, so I have freed him from this existence."

My blade appeared in my hand, and I settled into a stance: knees bent, left leg in front, hilt parallel to the floor, next to my head, and the blade resting between the first two fingers of my outstretched left hand. "I've got eternal rest right here, Seymour, waiting for you. Come and get it."

"As you will. I will grant you death; you seem to want it so." The fabric of reality seemed to warp around the unsent madman, a great darkness, and the monks he'd brought with him vanished, along with Kinoc's body.

When the space-time continuum returned to normal, Seymour had changed into some kind of grotesque monster, and he began reaching for us.

Kimahri blocked his path. "Hurry!" he shouted. "Run!"

I shook my head. "Not a chance. I can kill this maniac... or unkill him, whatever it is you do to an unsent... quicker than you. See?"

People who have never trained with swords are often surprised by the sheer reach of a three-foot blade on the end of an arm, and Seymour was no exception. My katana blurred through a series cross-cuts, eviscerating him about twenty times over, and a final blow, powered by my bionic arm cleaved through him completely.

Before the bloody thing had hit the floor, we were running for the gates.

* * *

Author's note: I guess I'm on a bit of a roll here; it's been months since I updated this frequently. I apologize if I left anything out; I'm working from memory here.

Next chapter, Ian's hidden past will be revealed; I'll try to get it out as soon as possible.

Nothing to respond to this time, it appears. Read it and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark


	16. Chapter 16: Harmony of Dissonance

I don't own anything except the Takahari family, their Dragoon Spirits, Kenji Okamura, Victor d'Eltham, and Jeannette Delacroix

* * *

Following our flight from Bevelle, after we discovered just how much of a fraud Yevon really was, we made our way to Macalania Forest, where we would rest for a time, before moving on to the Calm Lands. Beyond that empty plain lay Mount Gagazet, home of the Ronso, and past the mountain lay our final destination: Zanarkand.

In the meantime, we spread out through a section of the forest, with Tidus, Yuna, and Kimahri disappearing near a large pond, most of the other Guardians congregating in a clearing, and Ryan, Karen, Rose, and Rikku joining me in another. We had a lot of catching up to do.

"So, niisan," Ryan asked after we had relaxed in various positions in the clearing. "Are you finally gonna explain just what you've been up to for the last while?"

"Yeah." I sat cross-legged in the center. "It's a long story, which began eight years ago, in 2001. You know, of course, that I was in Paris, chasing Francois Lafayette. What you don't know is that Lafayette was merely a stepping stone, a link in the chain leading to my true target, Ivan Tarkovsky."

Ryan blinked. "Tarkovsky? You don't mean the head of the Red Wolf Society, do you? I thought they were just art dealers and small-time environmentalists."

"Purely a cover." I snorted. "A pretty good one, too. The Clan didn't catch onto him until after I neutralized Mario Cambrelli in Venice. Tarkovsky was in reality a very nasty vampire, ex-Spetsnaz, and the Red Wolf Society was a gang of international art thieves and terrorists. It took me nearly two years to finally put an end to them." With a sigh, I looked up at the starry sky. "It was in that year that I met Jeannette Delacroix. She was an art thief, breaking into the Louvre..."

* * *

Flashback, to eight years earlier.

* * *

I was staking out the famous Louvre museum myself that night; I had it on good authority that Francois Lafayette was planning a major art theft that night, and I intended to eliminate him before he had the chance.

Using a sophisticated lock pick, I slipped into the darkened museum, one hand hovering near the hilt of my blade, Arashi-Jisan. I ghosted through the entry hall, using a set of thermal goggles to scope out the terrain. In my left hand I held a small infrared flashlight, emitting a beam invisible to the naked eye. I also kept a sharp eye out for infrared sensors, invisible trip wires that would sound alarms, ruining my mission.

On this mission I also carried a Beretta M9 autopistol, modified to fire tranquilizer darts. If I encountered anyone besides my target and his associates, I intended to trank them, not kill them. A ninja did not kill needlessly.

I moved silently through the dark, quiet museum, feeling decidedly uncomfortable; it was eerily quiet, like tomb. The various statues didn't help much, and in the dark, the paintings looked much like windows leading to shadowy realms.

To be frank, I was spooking myself pretty bad when I saw the figure crouching on one of the skylights outside. My attention was instantly focused on the newcomer, and I watched with professional approval as the stranger cut a neat hole in the glass, no larger than necessary, then replaced it once inside.

As the figure used a black cable to carefully lower itself to the ground, I hid in the shadows, waiting. As soon as the interloper had reached the floor and put away the cable, I stepped silently up behind, reached around, and put a hand over the mouth, preventing the stranger from crying out. "Relax," I said in a barely audible voice. "Don't make a sound." I carefully removed my hand. "Who are you?"

The newcomer turned, and whatever thoughts of violence the interloper might have entertained vanished when my sword became noticeable in the dim light. "Jeannette Delacroix," she said faintly. "And you... you are a ninja."

I nodded, impressed that she had made the connection so quickly. "Yes. Don't worry; if you're here to steal something, I won't stop you. I've got another target, a competitor of yours, by the name of Francois Lafayette." I glanced around. "I don't suppose you've seen any other thieves breaking in?"

She shook her head, still in something of a daze from having a stealth warrior of an almost mythical group ambush her in a museum and hold a casual conversation. "But I know of Lafayette; he and I are after the same display. If he is coming here tonight, I will gladly assist you; I dislike the competition."

Enemy of my enemy is my friend, I guess, I thought. "Show me."

Delacroix led me to one of the art exhibits, deeper within the building. Had she not been an experienced thief herself, I suspect she would have gasped aloud at the sight that greeted us: the Frenchman had beaten us to it, along with several of his henchmen. "That... that..." She proceeded to call him something that I didn't quite catch; I wasn't very good with French yet, but from her tone I suspected it meant something on the order of bastard. "He is already here!"

"Stay back; I'll handle this." I refrained from drawing any weapons as I advanced; the Louvre was not the best place to leave blood stains. Instead, I crept up behind the first man, suddenly gripped his chin and forehead, and _twisted_.

The crack as his neck snapped drew the attention of the other thieves, but they were no match for an experienced assassin. In a blur of hand-to-hand attacks, Lafayette's henchmen lay dead upon the floor, and the vampire himself stood amid the twisted wreckage, staring at me. "You... You are one of the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi!"

"Correct." Before he could recover from his surprise, I lunged forward and slipped a dagger neatly between his ribs and into his heart. "And another one gone, and another one gone, and another one bites the dust," I murmured, retrieving my blade as the corpse disintegrated.

Delacroix uttered an oath, staring. "Who _are_ you?" she blurted.

I smiled. "Come with me, and I'll tell you."

* * *

After dragging the bodies away, we stood on the roof of the museum. "My name is Ian Takahari," I told her, "son of Hirotaro Takahari, and heir to the leadership of the Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi Clan of ninja, in Japan."

"You don't look Japanese," she pointed out, "and your accent is American."

"As to the looks, we have quite a few Western ancestors in our family tree. As for my accent, I was educated in the United States." I shrugged. "Comes in handy, sometimes."

Delacroix nodded numbly. "But what was that thing? Why did Lafayette's body turn to ashes like that?"

"He was a vampire," I said softly. "For the past few centuries, my clan has fought them, trying to exterminate them. I was sent West three months ago, in order to take out some of the vampires that have recently been turning up in fairly prominent areas. My first target was in Venice, Mario Cambrelli."

Jeannette frowned. "Mario Cambrelli? The famous art dealer? I'd heard that he was missing, but you are saying...?"

"Yes, he was a vampire. He was also lowest on the ladder that I'm going up, systematically eliminating a criminal group with several other vampires in key positions." I raised an eyebrow. "No doubt you've heard of the Red Wolf Society."

She nodded. "Yes, they've been responsible for making my trade much more difficult of late, by supplying museums with better security systems. I've never even tried to steal anything from any of their private warehouses. What about them?"

"They supply the security systems so that they can more easily gain access later. That's how the Clan stumbled on the fact that the Red Wolf Society is in fact a cover organization for the Fox Syndicate, one of the deadliest and most efficient groups of art thieves and terrorists in the world." I looked up at the sky. "Their leader, Ivan Tarkovsky, is a vampire, as well as ex-Spetsnaz. He is my ultimate target. But first he has numerous undead lieutenants that I must deal with."

Jeannette grabbed my arm. "I'm coming with you!"

I glanced at her in surprise. "Why?"

"Because if that is true, than it has been a group of my competitors making my life difficult, not merely a legitimate business." She looked down at the roof beneath our feet. "And because one of Tarkovsky's Fox Syndicate men killed my parents. If I had known that the two organizations were one and the same, I would have gone after them myself. Please, take me with you."

"It won't be anything like breaking into museums," I warned. "This group knows its business."

"I know. But this is something I must do."

I nodded slowly. "All right. I hope you know what you're getting into." After a moment, I grinned. "We'd best get going then; our next stop is Costa Rica. And maybe along the way I'll convince you to get out of the art theft business!"

* * *

End flashback.

* * *

"So that's how we met," I said. "We just happened to be breaking into the same museum at the same time. Jeannette's skills did prove to be invaluable, during that mission."

"So, how, ah, close _were_ you two?" Ryan asked.

I studied the cold night sky. "Very close," was all I said.

"So you went from Paris to this 'Costa Rica'?" Rikku said. "What did you find there?"

"A jungle lab; we never found out exactly what they were cooking up, but it seemed to be some kind of engineered virus." I snorted. "The hard drive with the virus data was destroyed by gunfire just after I copied the information, and the disk was wiped by some kind of experiment they were conducting involving electromagnetic fields. Doesn't really matter; the Fox Syndicate was wiped out in early 2003."

"In Kazakhstan?" Rose asked.

"Yeah." I paused, taking a deep breath. "We'd taken out their lab in Costa Rica, stopped a terrorist attack in Washington, neutralized a concealed weapons warehouse in New York, a base in Kazakhstan, and some kind of cathedral in Ukraine that they'd converted into a prison. Then we got word that Tarkovsky's people had found an intact R-9 Devyatka missile silo in Kazakhstan, under a warehouse district, and were preparing to launch it. We went in by chopper..."

* * *

Flashback, to six years earlier.

* * *

"You sure this is the right place, mon ami?" Jeannette asked me, shouting over the noise from the helicopter's rotors. "Looks like just a bunch of warehouses to me."

"Yeah, this is it." I scanned the area through a set of binoculars. "There's supposed to be an elevator leading down to the silo in one of those buildings. Warehouse... 15, I think." I stuffed the binoculars into a belt pouch, and turned to the cockpit. "Set her down! We'll go on foot from here!"

The pilot, Sakura Hideoshi, flashed a thumbs-up and bent to her task, bringing the chopper down on one of the rooftops. "Good luck, Ian. I'll wait here until you return."

As the rotors slowed to a stop, Jeannette and I checked our gear. She, too, wore a katana on her back; in the two years since we first met in Paris, I'd given her some ninjutsu training, enough to hold her own in a fight and avoid detection by most people. "Ready, Jeannette?"

She nodded. "Check, mon ami. Though I'd rather be back on the barge on the Seine, listening to Chopin and relaxing with a good book, or perhaps sparring."

I smiled; between operations, we'd stayed in a barge I'd bought in France. "I always preferred Richard Wagner, or maybe Edvard Grieg."

Jeannette shook her head, smiling tolerantly. "Ah, you never could appreciate a good French composer, could you, Ian?"

"Matter of taste, that's all. I'll admit that I don't approve of Wagner himself, though." Dropping to the roof, I looked up at the night sky. "And, yeah, I'd rather be back in France, too. Or back home. When all this is over, and we've iced Tarkovsky, I'll show you my native land, introduce you to my brother and sister. We should have plenty of time to relax; as far as we can determine, Tarkovsky is the last vampire in the world, aside from Matthias Cronqvist. And I don't think he's due to resurrect in our lifetimes." I couldn't know, of course, that Draco von Schneider and Cassius were still alive...

* * *

We moved silently through the warehouse compound, dealing with the various sentries Tarkovsky had posted with almost absurd ease. I wasn't fooled by their incompetence, of course: why should Tarkovsky waste his best guards on the surface, when as far as he knew his enemies had no idea the base even existed?

"This is it," I said, speaking for the first time in over an hour as we entered Warehouse 15. "The elevator should be behind that crate." With a grunt of exertion, I shoved it out of the way. "Ah, here it is."

My companion smiled. "I should know better than to doubt your Clan's intelligence network. I doubted the information about Ukraine, too, and I was wrong."

"Yeah," I said absently. "Draw your weapon; I think it's Ride of the Valkyries time." By this I meant that it was extremely unlikely we could avoid being spotted for long in the silo itself. "Guns, not blades." Even a ninja needed heavier firepower once in a while.

In answer, Jeannette hefted a suppressed Heckler & Koch MP40 submachine gun, essentially an MP5 in .40 caliber. Her other hand stroked the hilt of a combat knife, hidden in her left boot. "Ready."

I nodded, and pulled my own weapon of choice from its holster: a Colt Single Action Army revolver, chambered for .45 Long Colt. Only six bullets, and it would take too long to reload for it to practical for more than that, but each of those bullets would drop a man instantly, if hit in the right place. I had a backup gun, of course; a light-weight Fabrique Nationale P90 submachine gun, slung on my back.

Together, we made a lethal team.

"Let's go." I flipped the switch, and the elevator began to descend to the hidden missile silo.

* * *

My eyes narrowed as the enormous missile came into view. "We were right," I said quietly. "A live Devyatka, and it looks like they're getting ready to launch. We've got to stop them." Slipping my revolver from its holster, I glanced around. "See any targets?"

"One on a walkway checking the missile, two standing guard on the first floor." Jeannette pointed them out. "None of them Tarkovsky."

"Probably on the second level, prepping the computers." I glanced at my watch. "I think we've got about five minutes before launch; no time for anything fancy."

"Ride of the Valkyries," she replied with a smile. "On three?"

"On three." I raised the Colt, checked the cylinder, and readied myself for a deadly run. "Three... two.. one... Go!"

We exploded out of the elevator, already shooting. My first bullet caught the terrorist on the walkway in the neck; he dropped while his head catapulted across the room. Jeannette's .40 caliber rounds quickly scythed down the other two sentries, and then we were heading for the lift down to the next level...

We were almost to it when Jeannette screamed, jerked like a marionette, and collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach.

I halted. "Jeannette!"

She managed to shake her head. "Go! It's not fatal. Finish the mission, then get me help. You know you must..." Jeannette moaned then, and mercifully lost consciousness.

I knelt by her side. "I'll be right back, Jeannette. I promise." Then I was up and running, a pair of quick shots from my Colt dispatching two terrorists foolish enough to get in my way.

And then it occurred to me to wonder who had shot my companion. I turned, and there was the Russian bastard, watching me from a higher level. "Tarkovsky!"

"You're too late, Takahari," he said, laughing. "In two minutes, the missile will launch, NATO will go to Defcon 1, and the world will be plunged into World War Three. You cannot stop it."

"Who's the target, Tarkovsky?" I demanded.

"Does it matter?" He turned and walked out of sight.

While I longed to go after him and finish him off right away, I knew that my first duty was to stop this World War before it could begin. Cursing the world in general, I hurried on.

Before I reached the control center, I was forced to switch to my P90; the last round in the Colt was reserved for someone else. Using the Belgian weapon, I cut a swath through the terrorists Tarkovsky had placed in my path. They may have been the best terrorists in the world, but even they stood less than no chance against an angry, desperate Kyuuketsuki Ryoushi ninja. By the time I was through, they all looked like someone had put them through a cheese grater.

* * *

I rushed into the control room, sprayed fire from my P90, and vaulted over to the Devyatka's control panel. "Come on, come on..." I muttered. "You've done this a hundred times in simulation, you can do this... Hit that button, then this..." After several frantic moments of keystrokes, I sighed in relief as the countdown died. "Did it. Now I go back to Jeannette."

I rushed even faster on the way back, now that I no longer had any opposition. But I was too late, and the sight that greeted me next to the massive missile horrified me. _"No!"_

Tarkovsky knelt beside her, fangs in her throat. After a long moment, he pulled away, mouth dripping blood. "Ahh, refreshment. It's the least she could do, after helping you destroy the plans of many years."

"You bastard!" Without conscious thought, the Colt was suddenly in my hand, and the world came down to the sight picture of a Colt Single Action Army revolver, centered on the head of Ivan Tarkovsky.

"What good do you think that will do?" he scoffed. "You cannot kill me that way-"

His voice was forever cut off as his head exploded. "That last bullet was silver," I choked out. "And now Jeannette Delacroix is avenged. You murdering bastard..." I collapsed to the floor, next to the corpses of a vile monster, and the woman who was most important to me. "Rot for eternity, you bastard!"

The radio I carried crackled. "Ian, Sakura here. What's your situation? Ian?"

I picked myself up. "Ian here, Sakura," I said in a voice like lead. "Mission accomplished. Inform Father that the R-9 Devyatka is disarmed, Tarkovsky is dead, and the Fox Syndicate is no more. And..." I added, voice shaking, "tell him to get a body bag out here. Jeannette didn't make it."

Sakura's voice softened. "I'm sorry, Ian." She was silent for a few moments before she continued. "Are you ready for pickup?"

I glanced around at the blood-spattered silo. "Yeah. There's nothing here but the dead now."

* * *

End of flashback.

* * *

"So that's the real reason you hate vampires so much?" Rose asked softly.

"Yeah." I drew a shaky breath. "Ever since that day, I've devote my existence to destroying the menace that deprived me of the one person who meant the most to me. I thought I'd avenged her death, until she returned as that cyborg, and sent me on a journey home for the first time in years."

"What did you find out?" Karen asked.

"Bad things." I chuckled in bitter amusement. "Turns out one member of the Hideoshi family still lives: Sakura, the same woman who dropped us in on the Kazakhstan silo."

Ryan started in surprise, and even looked slightly stricken. "Sakura? But we positively ID'd her body after Sandora's attack... How can she...?"

I looked at him sympathetically; years before, Sakura Hideoshi had been Ryan's girlfriend, and he'd been pretty bad off for awhile, once he could afford to face the loss. That had been after the Second Dragon Campaign ended, of course. "According to Sakura, that was a clone," I told him, revulsion in my voice. "I knew Hideoshi Industries was working on cloning limbs for transplant, but cloning an entire person, especially for something like this...!" I shuddered. "I'm sorry, Brother. I know how close you two were. But Sakura is not who she was. I think she snapped when the Deep Mountain clan wiped out the rest of her family. That last year or so, and the years since..."

"Wait a minute," Rikku interrupted. "You actually talked to her in person?"

"Yeah. I'd infiltrated the labs, managed to steal this prototype exoskeleton, and got myself fitted for a bionic arm." I grinned. "That's the problem with having so much automation. It didn't occur to the computers that I might not be authorized for that procedure. Anyway, I got all the way up Sakura's penthouse office, where I confronted her. She seemed as surprised as I was; I thought at first she had simply assumed me dead six years ago. But she didn't bother lying. Sakura admitted she'd faked her own death, then told me the truth behind Jeannette's reappearance." My face twisted in anger and remembered pain. "After I was extracted from the missile base, Sakura returned and retrieved Jeannette's body, bringing it back to Hideoshi Labs, where she revived her, used a vaccine similar to the one Ryan developed to cure her vampirism, and kept her alive for the next six years in that exoskeleton, while she experimented on her like a plaything." I clenched my bionic fist.

"Is Sakura still alive?" Ryan asked, looking almost as pained. "Did you kill her?"

I shook my head. "No. But I'll be honest with you, Ryan; it wasn't because of your past with her that I stayed my hand. If it weren't for the big nasty robot guards she sicced on me, I _would_ have killed her, for what she's done. It turns out she deliberately set Jeannette on my trail, apparently expecting the cybernetic implants to keep her in line. That's why she was so surprised when I turned up in her office: she honestly hadn't expected me to survive Jeannette's attack. She didn't count on her _trying_ to lose."

Rose leaned forward. "Did that disk Jeannette left you explain why she destroyed your ring?"

I nodded. "Yes, it seems Sakura did some research of Endiness on her own; how, I'm not quite sure yet, but she did. And in the download she gave Jeannette's implants about Endiness, she included a little fact about that ring: it was cursed. Melbu Frahma ordered Faust to create it as a trap: it gave the wearer immortality, and effective invincibility, but the cost was the bearer's soul. The longer you possessed it, the more under the influence of it you became. Frahma evidently hoped that it would find its way into the possession of one of the Dragoons. It did, but about eleven thousand years after he expected." I shrugged. "When Jeannette accessed the data, she decided to do something about it. She hadn't intended to cut off my arm; it was just the only way she could get rid of it, since the cybernetics still held sway over most of her movements. The best she could do was direct the attack toward the place where it would be most useful, and then give me an opening when next we fought."

I stood and stared into the sky, where perhaps Jeannette Delacroix's spirit roamed. "And now you know my story."

* * *

Author's note: Another chapter out faster than expected. I trust this explains things in a satisfactory manner.

Songwind, I evidently wasn't as clear as I thought; what I meant to indicate was that Ian freed them at the entrance to the Via Purifico, not in their cells. I will endeavor to be more clear in the future.

Seriyu-the-ice-dragon, I was wondering when someone would notice the recent trend in my chapter titles. I confess that I've only actually played one of them, but the titles tend to be fitting, especially given the vampire-hunting aspects of the story.

That about covers everything; read it and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark


End file.
